Repercussions
by CrazyKatChan07
Summary: After IM2 - Tony and Pepper have finally come to terms with their relationship - then a model Tony knew years ago dies. What she leaves him behind is something he didn't expect to get - but everyone else isn't surprised. Mild language, sexual references.
1. Chapter 1

AN – This is just something I thought of that I've seen around as a plot a few times, but I thought a better spin could be done. Not that it's not expected, but it would be a little different with some different circumstances.

Read, review, let me know how I'm doing. I'm always interested in reader responses.

Disclaimer – not my characters, I just make them do what I want in my head. A lot. A lot a lot.

Chapter 1

Realization of Past Indiscretions

I wonder sometimes if people will ever forget what I did in the past. Sure, I raided enough panties for a whole college football team, but I'm done now. I'm done playing that game. I…somewhat forcedly settled down for one reason or another, including the final realization that all of those naked models were just covering my underlying needs for actual love. But that's all lovey-dovey shit and I'm not really fond of trying to decipher my past.

I have Pepper, Pepper has me. We're fine. She occasionally sleeps in my bed, she takes care of my company, and I screw around with random robotic parts in my basement all day. It sounds like I'm the biggest nerd on earth with a sugar momma bringing home the bacon every day, but anyone who pays attention knows…at least a little better. I'm better looking than basement-dwelling nerds who spend their days hacking into porn sites to see the only girls they will ever see.

"Miss Potts is calling, sir."

"Patch, please." I had my fingers inside the arm of the Mark VI. I had some wires come loose that had to be hand-done. My favorite job. If only she could see me – I was shirtless with magnifiers on. Probably pretty attractive.

"Tony, there's…something we need to talk about."

"If you're on your period again, I'm not interested in hearing about how the female body functions to produce children." A pause for a good pinch from a part of the metal plates. "…What is it, dear." I chimed. I'm sure she'll be really happy from my gut-feeling response.

"One of our lawyers and I will be by shortly. Put on clothes."

How did she always know when I was in some kind of state of undress? Did she have cameras hidden somewhere so she could watch me in the day time? What was this, a prison? Or did she just enjoy seeing me sweaty? Well, I already knew the answer to that…

Nonetheless, I was a good boy and finished as best I could so I could clean up decently for whoever this was that was going to show up. Lawyers means suits. Usually for me, either damage suits or paternity. Less paternity as of late, more damage, but I was still curious.

I was nice enough to at least put on a nice grey t-shirt and a pair of tighter fitting jeans for when they walked in. It wasn't just Pepper and a lawyer, it was two people. Were they both lawyers? More than likely.

After basic introductions, we all found the living area with Pepper and I on one side of the table and the two suits on the other side. Without words, one of the people – a man, older and unhappy looking that I knew to be one of my well kept lawyers. The woman looked older and tired while holding a file. Yep. A suit.

Since Pepper didn't reach out for the paper, I did. Aha. Paternity. Fantastic. I didn't get wind of these unless there was reason to – that the possibility of this one being real was pretty high.

"Ilya Lyubochka. Ex-model. Hmm. I saw where she died recently…"

"Mr. Stark, she had a child 6 years ago. Her mother has come to us claiming that said child is yours."

"Have we done any testing?"

"We wanted to do…more extensive testing." I had been reading the paper handed to me, stating what the woman wanted for the little girl. Mostly money, but it seemed that the woman that claimed she had conceived with him had slowly killed herself because she was never able to return to her pre-pregnancy body and lost her job because of it. But when the man had said they wanted more tests - that meant tests had been done. I popped my head up and looked at both of the people sitting across from me. Pepper's hand found it's way to my back, rubbing softly in a circle. She knew all of this already. She had had this discussion with them.

I have a kid.

Oh. Shit.

The older woman then unfurled her arms and put down the file on the table, opening it. Inside were two pictures. One of the woman I supposedly slept with. Okay, not supposedly. I knew her right off the bat. Somewhat remembered the night, even. She had been pretty, not too bad of a body. Very odd noises, that's what I remember most. Squeaks. She had been so skinny…

The other picture was a young girl. 4 or 5, giggling and playing with a doll as she sat on a couch. Her hair was dark and wavy, but her eyes were light and blue. From her mother, and something she got from Dad. My darkness was from Mom.

Underneath the pictures was a DNA test. It wasn't the first time I had seen that piece of paper. I occasionally got these hits and the women came running with blood samples only to find that they were wrong. All they wanted was money anyway.

I kept blood in the bank at the company for this reason. I shouldn't have to deal with this. But now that something did come through…I had no clue how to proceed.

"The blood test says we are a match. Why further testing?"

"We want to be absolutely sure before we turn the child over to you, Mr. Stark." The woman chimed.

…wait, what?

"Excuse me? Turn the child over? This isn't the normal 'This is your kid, where's my 50 mil?'"

"No, Mr. Stark. The girl's mother is the only family member left, and she is dying of cancer in a small town in Russia. She is interested in back pay, but more interested in finding a home for this child instead of child services taking her."

Oh god. A kid. I could get over HAVING a child, but caring for one? I'm a 'super hero', I just started getting comfortable with the idea that I was dating the woman who had been my assistant for years, and now someone walks up with a 5 year old and says "Here, take this too."

I felt like snapping. But I couldn't. Pepper had noticed my tensed feeling and leaned forward to lean herself on my side to show her presence in all of this. I'm sure she wanted to relieve some of my tension somehow, but how could someone get rid of this? My life already changed so much. A child.

"Okay. If she's in Russia...when will she be here."

"When you sign this paper that you acknowledge her as your child." She slipped over a piece of paper that had an orange tag at the bottom next to a guardian signature.

"So. If I sign this…she's my child for me to care for."

"Yes, these are the adoption papers Mr. Stark."

"…Give me a moment." I fled. Not alone, mind you. As I stood, I grabbed Pepper. I dragged her along into the kitchen quickly, leaving the two staring at us both. With no shame I slammed the door on the kitchen from the living room, and hit my head on the wall next to it. What to do. I mean, the right thing to do is to take this child. But what would that do to my relationship, to my night job, to my life completely? Am I honestly ready for a kid?

"Tony, what are we doing?" She whispered as best as you can whisper a yell. I wasn't sure if she was more pissed at how I responded to being told this, or that we had just left the two sitting along in my living room. How inhospitable, I'm sure she thought. I wasn't really worried about them.

"I...I can't. I can't care for a child. Does she even speak English? I don't know shit about kids, Pepper. I'm not sure I'm even mature enough to do this." I could have broken down crying if I was weaker. I'd dealt with worse. I think I have. Well, being an orphan at 17…was that worse than having a kid thrust upon you?

She felt my struggle. She knew how to help me make this decision. She turned me from staring at the brown wall to instead to look at her in the face. Way too many times recently I'd broken face in front of this woman. Well, that's what she was for, right? If someone had to know that I didn't know what to do, it might as well be her.

"You can do this. If you decide to do this, you will. And I'll be right here for you." She kept my gaze, and all this made me want to do was kiss her. But we couldn't leave them outside long. Something hit me internally. This could be the final straw that would get me to convince her to move in. Besides, I lived through torture for 3 months in a cave. How could caring for a 5 year old be any harder than that?

With that, I kissed her cheek softly with a half smile in appreciation before wandering back out the door once I opened it again. They just sat where they had been, and everything had been picked up but the adoption papers as well as the picture of the girl.

I sat back down in the spot I had had before, but Pepper stayed standing next to me. The older woman handed a pen over to me and I took it, looking at blank line for a moment. Another thought.

"Can two people sign it? Like, where I'm not the only guardian? I mean, I do put my life in risk on a regular basis. She could be orphaned again." I turned up to look at Pepper, who was staring down at me with an odd look. What was it? Shock? I wasn't sure.

"Yes, Mr. Stark. There is another line underneath for use for another guardian."

"Good." Without hesitation, I signed my horribly large signature of Anthony E. Stark before holding the pen up above me to the towering woman.

As she stood there staring at me, I waved the pen in my fingers.

"If I'm going to be a father, you get to be mommy." I knew I would get some kind of reprimand for that, but she knew I was right. She finally sat down on my knee and leaned over to sign on the line underneath my own writing.

Once the signatures were given, the woman took her paper and both of them stood. Pepper got off of my lap, and I stood too.

"We will make the proper arrangements for her to be transported here. I will call Miss Potts in the morning to give you all of the flight information."

"Thank you Miss."

They both left and left us completely alone. For a while, I just stared out the back window over the ocean, thinking. What next? What happens now? How long do we have to set up for this 5 year old?

Wait, did I even look at her paperwork to see her name?

I turned away from my staring contest with the waves of the pacific. Maybe the girl's name was on the back of the picture.

Pepper was already sitting there on the couch, pushing buttons on her blackberry. I wasn't really paying attention as to exactly what she was doing. Probably sending out emails.

I found myself plopped next to her on the couch. Just her warmth made everything easier for the moment. I picked up the picture, and on the back written in Cyrillic was a name of some sort and a date putting the picture at 14 months previous.

"Did you…see what the girl's name was? I was too busy freaking out."

"Emilia Renee." She didn't look up. Whatever she was busy doing was something that needed to be done immediately. I was…intrigued.

"What are you doing anyway?"

"Cancelling appointments for the rest of the week. We have adjustments to make."

"Good. Because I know I won't know what to do."

"Tony," She said quietly, leaning into my shoulder at her side. "You'll be fine. I'll be here."

For a moment, we just sat there on the couch and I kissed the top of her head. I needed to cool down. I needed to work. Electronics made me forget. I needed to go downstairs.

"Will you move in now?" I just blurt it out. That was the last thing we needed.

She moved away and stared at me for a minute. I wasn't sure if I should look at her, but I finally turned and did look straight at her.

"I'll…think about it."

"You should. At least for the beginning. But I'd like it to be longer."

"We'll talk, Tony."

I was up and about quickly, making my way downstairs.

"Find someone to move the stuff out of one of the guest rooms for…Emily."

"Yes, Mr. Stark. Will that be all?"

She had to be mean at a time like this.

"And buy her some clothes and toys. That will be all for this afternoon, Miss Potts." I was down to my door by now, and as I walked in I yelled before I shut the door

"And I expect you home for dinner!"

AN – I'm not sure exactly where I want this to go…we'll see what pops out of my head.


	2. Chapter 2

AN – So I think I like this story. There's nothing like a Tony who doesn't know what to do. Throw in a child that doesn't speak English or know who he is – this is going to be a wild ride!

Disclaimer – Only Emily is my own, and even then she's pretty simple. Everything goes back to Marvel otherwise.

Chapter 2

Awkward Gestures

The next morning - while once again elbow deep in wiring - Pepper came down and told me that the girl would arrive in approximately 24 hours. The jet had to get there, set up again, and turn right back around to bring her to me. It took a while from Russia, sure, but more than anything the other side had thrown a fit that someone just walked to their door and told them to pack the little girls things immediately. I'm guessing grandma is a bitch.

Throughout the afternoon the day before and all morning of the next, movers and designers were in and out of the house to decorate and set up a room for a young child. Since I wasn't interested in talking to these many people in my house, I stayed downstairs and took apart the new Mark for hardware upgrades. Did it really need newer wiring? No, it wasn't even that old – but it couldn't hurt to have fresh, top of the line stuff.

Pepper had reactivated her PA status for a week. I definitely needed it, what with my complete lack of knowledge with children and she had at least something. I'm sure she had babysat in high school or whatever. I didn't even see cousins much less anyone younger than me that wasn't in school with me.

She brought down some sandwiches for lunch and forced me to remove myself from the armor. It was much more fun for me to hide within it and act like nothing was going on anyway. Sure, there were designers upstairs that I was paying 5 figures by the hour and designer furniture going into a room for a 5 year old, but I just had to convince myself that it was all for good cause – otherwise I wouldn't have let anyone else in here.

"You probably should be more interested in the set up for your own child, Tony."

"Yeah, about that." Out of the shell of the suit's torso I came, lit and magnifying goggles on that I'm sure made me look like an idiot. "You're better with the whole girl and kid thing. You do whatever you think looks good; I'll just hand over the credit card. I should get used to that early, I'm told."

Both of us plopped on the nice couch in the corner and ate our sandwiches. After being chided about how dirty I was and forced to wash my hands, I mean. Then I ate my sandwich.

"What do you think she'll be like, Potts?"

"Let's see. Stubborn, loud, unwilling to ask or take help….but sweet and adorable, especially when sleeping or injured in some way."

"Oh ha ha, Pepper."

"You know what they say, Tony. People who were bad kids end up raising themselves."

"I wasn't a bad kid!"

"You aren't a bad kid now?"

"Depends on what you call kid." I mumbled, quickly turning and grabbing a piece of my sandwich so I could relocate. I had an idea of what I could do to help for the coming of a young child. Particularly one that probably didn't speak much English. I thought I remembered her mother having a horrible accent. Well, really, all Russian models had a really bad accent. So, more than likely, she probably didn't teach her child much English.

"Jarvis, let's look into a Russian translator for you. I'll be surprised if Emily will understand anything going on, much less anything we say. Oh! Pepper. While I'm at it, get Natashatalie to come tomorrow. She'll do well as a transitioner. Hell, get her a room here. It'll be better to have a young woman speaking Russian to a small child than a robot from the ceiling, huh." My mind was running a mile a minute. I could see a program in bloom in my head. A program created to help her learn more and more English by talking to Jarvis. He would start with straight Russian and add English over time. He would not be the only one. I had thought of schooling, tutors.

Holy shit, I'm starting to act like a parent.

But I haven't even met the damn kid.

The hours went by quickly, and I found myself waking up the next day. Pepper had decided to not stay after dinner the night before. I wish she had. I didn't sleep at all. What would the next day hold? The horrendous ideas kept coming. That she would hate me, or spend days screaming crying for her home and her dead family. That she would refuse to eat, or refuse to acknowledge me. Sure, I didn't expect her to come bounding into my arms and call me Daddy - …did I seriously want that right now? – but I didn't want her to outright refuse me.

My 7am wake-up call didn't even wake me. At 6 I was already bathed, dressed, and downstairs working on the programming within Jarvis. I still hadn't decided on my dress, so I just stayed in nothing but sweats pants and slicked hair. What do I do – dress nicely to meet a woman that doesn't like me, or dress comfortably to make myself more common in front of my child?

Best bet was to be as nice as possible to an old biddy with a probable hatred against my every fiber. I'm sure she blamed her beautiful daughter's death on my need to sow my billionaire seed.

It would take a little longer and a diverse dictionary to make the change in Jarvis complete, and a little time for diagnostics. Maybe I should bring in Natashatalie to test it later.

Once upstairs in my bathroom, I stared into the mirror. The face in the mirror wasn't a father. The face in the mirror was a guy who looked blazed out of his skull from insomnia and a few too many shots the night before. I tried to enjoy my night before I had to change my life. But now I looked like the man I saw in the mirror before Afghanistan. A 30-something drunkard wasting away in expensive booze and loose women.

I couldn't be that anymore. I had to be a good man to Pepper, a better man as a peacekeeper, and the best man as a father. The world would shift on it's head, and I had to stand at the ready for when it turned itself upside down on top of me.

Though I knew better, I told myself I was ready to try to hold on as it toppled.

Happy came knocking at 7:45, and I was standing there waiting. Hair slick, large sunglasses, and a purple dress shirt with pinstriped suit. I looked quite good if I do say so myself, and probably a little too good to be meeting a dying Russian woman. As I climbed into the limo, there in the seat I saw Pepper, smiling up at me with a hint of sadness in her face. She as always looked fantastic, and I decided to reward her with a few sizzling kisses on her open neck and jaw line as the door outside shut. I knew something was wrong when she was stiff as a board, and I heard a grunting noise from the other side of the car.

Oh, yeah, Natashatalie. She wasn't exactly enjoying our tender moment. If it had been any other circumstance, I would have played it up more. That's just the kind of ass I am.

"Good morning to you too Miss Rushman. Or have you acquired another name since we last spoke?"

"Good morning, Mr. Stark." She grumbled. She seemed so happy to be in my presence again. She loved me; I could feel her tearing my clothes away with her eyes. If I wasn't a taken man, I might even poke at her a little. But this wasn't the time for sexual banter with another employee.

It only took a few minutes to reach the air strip that was privately kept for people like me. As it was, the jet emblazoned with my logo was landing. Something was forcing my heart rate up. I fought men who tried desperately to kill me and I was frightened then. I hadn't been this nervous in years. Why? What could possibly end badly?

We three piled out of the limo as the jet came to a stop and the door opened up for the staff to put the staircase to it. First came one of the attendants with some small luggage that seemed tattered and not at all what I would have expected to be luggage for a 5 year old girl.

A few more attendants later, and an old, wrinkled woman came out holding her hand down to a mop of black hair stuck to a stick. At least that's what I saw at first. It took me a few moments to realize – that was her. That stick figure with black curls was my daughter.

I was horribly stunned.

She looked nothing like the picture I had seen of her only a year prior. Sure, kids grow up quickly from year to year, especially youngsters, but she looked so frail and unhappy. Both of them did. As they came to the bottom of the steps and stood before me, I'd be surprised if they couldn't see the shock on my face. I'd be surprised if Pepper didn't look similar to me either.

For a moment, both groups just stared at each other. The girl hid herself behind her grandmother's frail and thin leg while staring at us all. She looked about ready to cry. The woman herself looked steady, strong, and above all, grumpy that she was here in the first place.

The first to speak was Natashatalie. Damn that name is long. She needed a new name, but besides that. She started up a conversation with the gruff old woman, sounding soft and sincere. The woman spit back answers like what questions she was asked had answers like acid. I was curious as to the answers.

"Madame says that if she didn't have to involve you, things would have been better. But her daughter was driven insane by your forced pregnancy."

"You're fucking kidding me, right?"

"Tony!" Pepper whacked me on the shoulder with an angry look boring into the side of my face.

"What, you act like she can understand me."

Okay, so my bad. But I wasn't going to own up to it.

"Madame says she wishes a better man would have taken up on her daughter's affections, but she knows you'll take care of her granddaughter."

"Ask her…why she's so frail."

Odd words later –

"Ilya was too fat for work as a model. So, in her mind, so was her daughter."

"She starved her own kid."

"…Yes."

Okay, now I was justified in cursing out loud. Who knew how dehydrated or how badly she had malnutrition issues. Sure, that could all be fixed, but I didn't expect to be given a very sickly child.

"She needs to go to a hospital then, Tony! Who knows how sick she really is." Pepper had already hit full maternal mode. All women had it. I wondered how long that would take.

"I agree. Happy, car." I called.

As I turned around to go back towards the car, I finally heard her speak. A small, hard sound with a wavering voice.

"Nyet!"

As I turned back around, I saw something that I never expected to hit me as hard as it did. The little girl was sobbing. Emilia was sobbing.

My daughter Emily was sobbing.

Natashatalie was quick to ask questions it sounded like, and the woman tried to comfort the small girl but she wasn't interested. They all talked and talked and talked and no one other than the three of them. I didn't know what to do. I was so conflicted. Thisismydaughtershe'scryingIhavetofixit. Oh god. A full 180 seconds in front of this girl and I was already severely connected. Something about her was pulling me to her. Maybe it was how much she seemed to look like my mother, minus the blue eyes.

Without any English words, the old woman passed the girl over to Natashatalie and cried a few tears herself. The girl kept yelling what I knew was the Russian word for no, but the old woman made no pass to take her back. She even went to the degree of standing and walking back into the jet and leaving the young girl all alone with the three of us.

The Russian spy woman held her and tried to calm her down with soft words, but she didn't stop crying. A few minutes later, the dark redhead stood and carried the girl over to the limo and climbed in, stroking her back and still talking to her. Pepper and I took that as our cue to follow, and I instructed Happy to take us to the closest Stark-funded hospital. I didn't need the press to get wind of my illegitimate child so early.

The luggage she brought would go straight to the house and the staff would place it in her new bedroom. Where she wanted everything to go would be decided after she saw an American doctor.

"What's the problem, anyway?" I asked quietly, curious but not wanting to stir anything.

"She's never not been with her mother or grandmother before."

That could mean so many different things in the future.

I want to go on to the hospital scene, but I thought that would be enough deep pain for the night.


	3. Chapter 3

AN – I thought I would be mean and give you a glimpse into what I see as a future.

Disclaimer – As much as I frighten my other half with them, I do not own these characters. Except for Emily.

Chapter 3  
Allegations

"Where do you think you're going?"

"How did you even see me?"

"I'm your father. It's my job to know where you are and what fiendish things you're planning."

"If I believe Mom, you can't say anything about fiendish plans."

"I would stop believing her."

"Can I go out tonight?"

"Not in my car, you can't."

Me, still arms deep in armor and a bit more grey at the corners – but with a beautiful 16 year old hounding me to take my Audi. And a gold wedding band on my left hand.

"Mr. Stark? Mr. Stark."

The doctor was what awoke me from my daydream of the possible future. I stood instinctively and took off my sunglasses. Thankfully, with the right name dropping and money promises, we were immediately rushed to a private suite in the ER and the door shut quickly. We were given a younger doctor – probably mid-thirties, attractive guy – but standing in front of me then he looked a little worse for wear. Emily still hadn't stopped crying, but she had at least toned it down.

"Mr. Stark…your daughter, correct?"

"Yes, but could you keep that to yourself, thanks."

"O…kay, well, Miss Stark is malnourished and seems to have a number of deficiencies – Vitamin D, especially. We'll prescribe children's vitamins and meals every 2 to 3 hours in decent portion to get to her gain weight. I'm required to ask about how this came about as well, for paperwork."

"The only answer I have is that she wasn't in my care until 30 minutes ago. She was recently adopted from Russia."

"Do you have the paperwork showing the recent adoption?"

"Yes, I do." Pepper chimed in. From the folio she had been carrying in the car she produced copies of Emily's birth certificate, the paperwork showing the change of guardianship from her grandmother to myself, and what little we did have of her medical records, which mostly was just her birth and what was noticed then. It had been badly translated from Russian.

The doctor took the necessary copies and went off to finish the paperwork and to return with the discharge.

Behind the curtain, Natashatalie had soothed the little girl into a calmish demeanor. She was still gasping for air from time to time, but it wasn't all out sobbing anymore. At least we had gotten somewhere. It was better than hearing her scream anymore. If she had kept doing that, I was going to have to get someone to sedate her or something.

As we stood and waited for the professionals return, I peeked my head in behind the curtain. She looked so small and frail laying on such a large bed. I wasn't sure if my presence would start the screaming again, so I kept quiet.

She was looking away from me at Natashatalie (she needs a new name. Maybe I should just start calling her 'you there') and they both were speaking quietly to each other. She seemed pretty calm given the circumstances. I knew better than to call Nata-that darkredheaded chick- over to ask her anything because who knew what her trigger was going to be.

The doctor came in shortly afterwards to hand Pepper all the necessary paperwork and vitamins. Without further ado, we went back to the car and off to the mansion. As curious as I was to talk to the miniature human before me, I didn't want to step too hard too quick.

"Did the doctor say he'd keep quiet?"

"He graciously thanked you for your…hospital donation." Pepper said quietly.

"How much."

"Enough."

I'm sure I'd see the check stub later, but the amount didn't matter.

"What happens now."

"We show her her room. Acclimate her to her new home. We shouldn't leave her alone much for the first few days. She might need to stay in Natalie's room or-"

"Why wouldn't she stay in my room?"

Pepper looked at me with a bit of a stern look. What? What's wrong with MY daughter staying in MY room? Other than her inability to understand me and my inability to understand her? I had put that translator into Jarvis' programming…

"Because she needs to stay with who she's comfortable with." Pepper moved her head towards the two sitting in the back of the limo. At least now Emily was sitting in the seat and looking around with her puffy cheeks and round red eyes. She was getting over the crying, but she still seemed so frightened. I guessed that would go away with time.

Nata-whoever noticed me looking over at the two of them, and so she tapped the girl to get her attention before saying something to her. With her words, the young girl turned her head and looked straight at me with her blue eyes that seemed to bore straight through me. She said something, sounding confused before Nata-chick seemed to assure her.

What the hell were they talking about? It was driving me insane. Pepper noticed my tension yet again and put her hand over mine on my leg, squeezing gently. I breathed out heavily before taking off my sunglasses and handing them to her to put in her purse. I was too hot. There was too much going on in my mind.

I unbuttoned my suit jacket and took it off to show the purple I had hidden underneath and sighed as I pulled off the tie. If I was relaxed, maybe she would relax some too.

I laid back in the comfortable seating of the limo and closed my eyes, thinking of how this could all play out. She could be so mentally damaged by all of this that she could go into the state's protection. Or, she could be just fine within days and learn English quickly. Two extremes – which one would be correct?

In one hand I held Pepper's small, thin hand in my own calloused palm, feeling each bone and how much feeding a 5 year old might help her gain some weight too. My other hand was over my face, massaging my forehead before falling to my side. This was going to be long, and I knew it.

But then, while I thought of everything that could go wrong in the span of the next hour, I felt something weird.

Something touching me.

Wait, no.

Someone touching me.

I felt small bony hands on my chest. Even with the heavy fabric and the dark color, the arc still shown through the shirt. What I saw in front of me was something I didn't expect.

The girl, my daughter, was standing in front of me touching my chest.

She had no problem looking straight into my face and talking to me, apparently asking me a question about the glowing thing under my shirt. She seemed entranced by it. I get it, it was odd for someone to see something glowing under someone's shirt.

She knocked on it, even, and it made an odd metal plastic sound to her. It only made her forehead furrow worse.

It only took me seconds to realize that this really had to be my child.

Without further to do, I touched her hands softly to move them away from the fabric so that I could unbutton my dress shirt. I did, and showed her my chest and the glowing reactor inside.

Immediately she had to touch every part of it. She mumbled to herself in Russian, and poked at certain things. The triangle inside was of interest to her, and she traced it on the plastic that held it in.

"She doesn't understand why it's attached to you, or what's inside," called the soft voice from the other side of the limo.

"Tell her…it's a battery that runs my heart." I said quietly, really more talking to the curious little girl in front of me than the translating woman across the way.

She called something after the girl, and the girl just cocked her head to the side and looked up at me, her two small hands framing the piece in my sternum.

"Pochemy…" I knew that word. I'd heard it before. Just like I had heard the word she screamed earlier on the tarmac before.

"Your father is…sick." I said quietly before starting to button my shirt again. I forgot that I had to bring another person into my tight world of almost constant death. What would she think of the red and gold robotic man taking care of her later?

Nata-chick gave some kind of explanation to the girl, and she quickly ran back over to the other woman. I guessed she had told her to come back or that it was rude to ask or something, but the girl still couldn't take her eyes off of me. I wanted to know what was going on behind them.

Not long after we pulled in the gates of the mansion, and there the acclimating would begin.

AN – I thought this would be a good place to stop for now. Do you know how hard it is to find Russian written in Romanization sometimes? I'm not even sure that that's translated from Cyrillic properly, but I thought it would be something good to throw in there every once and a while. I know I'm learning interesting new things. =)  
It may be a few days before I update again, but I can promise multiple chapters when I do. Family vacation, woooo… _


	4. Chapter 4

AN – I'm so deep into this story mentally. The future possibilities are endless, especially with a 5 year old (most of which have an attention span of a goldfish) and a 37 year old man (who also has about the normal attention span of a goldfish sometimes). I want her to grow up so badly – I want her to know English and go to school and so much more – but baby steps.

Chapter 4  
Everybody's Changing

We all climbed out of the car in front of the giant house and Emily was last. The little girl seemed so enthralled by such a large house before her. She asked something of that other redheaded woman who was sent to spy on me, and she replied something back. I guess it was something like 'where are we' or 'what is this'. If I was a girl who had lived in country-bumpkin Russia I would feel the same way too.

We all piled in the front door like any other day, except for one extra human and Happy dragging in the two small bags she had brought with her inside. Pepper wandered upwards before everyone else moved on, I guess to put away her things in her designated room and to put away my coat and tie.

I was too…something to do anything but follow my child as she looked in awe at my home. No, it wasn't my home. It was our home.

And, if I could convince her, it would be mine, Emily's, and Pepper's home too.

I stayed down and fiddled with something in the living room as the two Russians looked around. I wanted to know what she thought. I wanted her to be happy. I had more things to do than stare awkwardly at a 5 year old – you know how hard it is for me to realize mentally that this is my child? – but my body wouldn't let me do anything else.

She asked questions, the woman answered as best as she could. She kept giving me the evil eye for some reason. What did she think I was doing? I was her boss, after all.

I wanted so badly to be the one ushering her around. I wished she knew English. Oh, that would be a good question –

"Little miss triple-agent – could you ask if she knows any English? Or learned any?"

She kept giving me that bitchy woman glare, but seemed to ask my question anyway.

Instead of a voice afterwards, I saw the small, frail hand hold up two fingers – the universal sign for a little bit.

Really?

"What does she know?"

She asked. What she said next, I never expected.

"My name est E-mil-eia…Staak."

Ten to one, her grandmother had taught her that. Just to be a bitch.

"Does she even know what she's saying?"

"…yes, she does. She said it's her name in case she gets lost."

"Well, at least her family gave her something before throwing her at a guy she's never met. Upstairs then?" I was unbuttoning my cuffs to take off my dress shirt before I even touched the steps to the next story. Somewhere behind me were the two, but I kept hearing Natashatalie calling to her. The curious child – oh god, I don't want to raise myself. As a chick. What happens when she comes into my room at night when Pepper's staying over-

At the top of the stairs I yanked my nice dress shirt off and flung it down the hall in a baseball style throw towards my door. But, as luck would have it, Pepper was coming out of my bedroom when the shirt collided with her face and scared her half to death.

I thought it was funny. Apparently so did Emily. Pepper – not so much.

"Tony, what was that for-"

"I didn't do it on purpose! I didn't know you were there – I'm sorry Mom it will never happen again." I whined like a 12 year old boy being punished. Sure, it would – and did – piss Pepper off to a degree but it was fun to amuse my daughter for a moment with my antics.

I knew I would enjoy having a gallery for my amusement later.

The shirt I had thrown ended up right back in my face as Pepper went on past me in her now-changed t-shirt and pajama pants to make the new-comer much more at home. They three went into her room without me – I was busy putting my own dirty clothes in the right place because Pepper 'didn't need more than one 5 year old in this house'.

I told her I loved her too.

I wanted to be there when she saw her room – I wanted to give her the gift I had created in a way I only knew how.

I wanted to be a part of her life and I wasn't quite sure how.

I changed to a greasy wife beater and some torn-up jeans before I wandered my way into the newly renovated bedroom. If Pepper was going to be comfortable, I was going to be normal comfortable. I wasn't sure that she wanted to see the only man in her life in boxers just yet.

It was one of the smaller bedrooms we had, but I knew it wouldn't be much of a problem for such a young girl. It had been repainted a soft purple, and all of the furniture was now small-sized and noted with flowers. The two women were doting and putting what she had brought away into certain places for her to find and showing the new toys she had received before she even appeared. She seemed most interested in whatever made noise or sang as well as whatever lit up.

She almost seemed delayed. She was 5, yes, but small things pointed me to the idea that she wasn't at full developmental age. You would expect a 5 year old to be interested in books and dolls – not toys that were a little more for babies. I hadn't bought the toys, I didn't know what age range had been bought for – but the light up rainbow piano seemed a little young for her, even if she did like it.

She seemed so very happy. That was something I missed – the innocent glow of childhood. What it meant to be truly without care. In that moment, she forgot that her mother was dead and that her grandmother had thrown her out with a man she didn't know – a man she was told was her father. I prayed silently every night that I got wasted and screwed some chick I wouldn't remember half of the next day that somewhere in all of that I would find that spark I lost at 17 years old.

It never came, but I chased it for years.

There seemed to be a stopping point, so I took the time to cough and get both of their attentions.

"Miss Shield, could you please tell her that I have a gift for her too."

"Yes sir." She turned to the little girl she was kneeling next to and told her something with a small smile. The girl pointed straight at me, and Natashatalie nodded softly.

With no shame or fear, the girl walked right over to me and stared up to my face from so far below.

"Jarvis, translate please."

"Yes, sir."

She jumped at the sound of another voice that didn't seem to be in the room. It made sense – someone was talking and she didn't know where from. For the easiest access, I kneeled down on one knee – just enough to where I was a little taller than her, but close enough for soft talking. I was sure Jarvis would be quite loud anyway.

"There is a man that lives in the walls of the house named Jarvis. You can talk to him all you want-"

As I spoke, Jarvis spoke as well right after me but with the Russian I had programmed him for.

"-and if you need anyone-" I pointed to Pepper, that other hot chick, then myself, particularly my showing arc.

"Tell him. He understands you." I pointed up towards the ceiling as he finished his translation. The girl seemed confused, frightened, and horribly excited at the same time.

She stared at me for a little while, seemingly measuring me up – looking me all over for something.

She said something with a funny look on her face that made her black hair and rounded features look just slightly like my own mother when confused.

"She asked when lunch is, sir."

That was good. She needed to eat more anyway. I was scared to touch her – the possibility of breaking her.

"Sure, we'll feed you. Natasha-" She was quick to walk over and take the little girl's hand, leading her back through her door and down the hall towards the staircase.

"I'll go too, Tony. Ten to one there's nothing fit for anyone under the age of 21 in the kitchen." Pepper walked on past me as well as I stood up and followed her on out. No reason to be in an empty kid's room.

"What about your juice? That doesn't have liquor in it does it?"

"I've thought about it."

"Underneath all that anger, you know you love me."

"Yes, that's why I want to put liquor in my juice in the mornings."

"You still haven't told me about moving in." Why not drop it on her now, when I knew I could corner her about it?

She was quick to whip around at me. Happily, she wasn't in heels anymore – and therefore I was taller. I missed moments like this during the week.

"Tony. …It's too early. I don't know. I understand why you want me to, but Natalie-"

"Natasha."

"Who cares. But, she will be here for a little while to get her settled."

"Then it's just going to be me. Do you really want to leave a 5 year old with me? She and I could start the don't eat and drink coffee club. She's halfway there."

I knew how to stoop too low. I knew I had hit it when I got that specific angry look that she reserved for times when she wanted to either hit me or tell me to go…well, you get the point.

"…In two weeks. After Natalie-Natasha-whatever is gone. Leaving her alone with you for too long might kill her."

"Okay, now that's insulting me. She wouldn't be bored!"

"That's the only thing she wouldn't be." She stomped off down the stairs to leave me alone, leaving me with that one last mental image of Pepper furious at me.

Sure, she was mad, but I had made my point.

I finally got Pepper to agree to move in.

Maybe soon enough, I could convince her to do other things too!

AN – I rewrote this 4 times. Seriously.  
I couldn't decide how I wanted it to go, how I wanted to start down this line of her life in the house. It's getting harder to stay around character lines – which is terrible.  
As always, reviews and comments are appreciated. It makes me want to write more for you!


	5. Chapter 5

AN – Abby L, since I can't reply to your reviews, I'll comment here instead for everyone to see –  
I wish the chapters were longer myself. I really have to force myself to add more to them sometimes. I'm a bit of a minimalist writer, and when I read fics that have 8k+ chapters on a regular basis, it makes me sigh and condemn myself. My first priority is finishing the thought/scene I have, and the second one is getting it to the readers as quickly as possible (and I'm failing on that currently). When you work a 12 hour job 4 days a week, it's hard to come home and write up some things. But I know I have to get these things out or I'll explode, and so will you guys =3  
This chapter I reaaally tried to make it longer by giving you a couple of little scenes instead of one big-ish one.  
Kudos to whoever catches the most recent chapter names.

Chapter 5  
…and I don't feel the same

The first week, Natashatalie slept in her room with her. We had the foresight to put a large bed in her room instead of a child sized bed, which made it easier for the woman to stay with her. I still held that twinge of jealousy – that feeling that I should have been the one sharing the lavender sheets with the frail Russian girl.

She was gaining weight. She was ravenously hungry at all times, so she snacked often. I had Jarvis keep track of her daily caloric intake, base measurements of her vitamins and minerals as well as the amount of strenuous activity she had throughout the day. Whenever it would be that we had to return to the doctor to show that I wasn't starving her, I had data and a plan ahead.

She looked healthier each day – her eyes seemed more alert, her hair seemed shinier, and she seemed to glow more in the light. I felt horrible knowing that she had gone through such terrible times before with her family – but at least now she was getting anything and everything she needed.

Pepper forced me to go to the grocery store – a terrible place with weird ass people at 2 in the morning. It made the most sense because then no one would see us, but I felt bad for Emily. We made her an impromptu bed in one cart and threw everything else into another. Occasionally we would ask her if she liked something, and she either just shook her head or nodded sleepily. The girls did most of the work - I was more interested in not touching anything and acting like a child myself. Hell, I didn't know they still made golden crisp – that shit was my favorite as a kid. Not that anyone had been buying for me before. I now had a case of it for munch food down in the workshop kitchen area.

Natasha (I'll just stick with that, since that's what my daughter calls her) stayed at the house at all times. I was paying her for her constant services just like she was being paid to be Pepper's assistant, so it wasn't a loss for her. I heard them running around upstairs all day while I tinkered and screwed around downstairs.

Occasionally I would pop up upstairs to have lunch with them or grab some coffee. All three of us made sure we ate with her every night for dinner so she got some socialization time and heard us speak to her in some English.

I don't think I'd ever seen a kid who loved noodles that much. That's all she really ever wanted to eat. She would eat other things, but she always wanted noodles. Spaghetti, mac and cheese, lasagna – whatever had pasta.

Thank god Natasha could cook – because for as much food as we bought, I didn't know what the hell to do with most of it other than some frozen pizzas and peanut butter. She made full dinners – roast, chicken spaghetti, stuffed pork chops. The woman could cook – and my house, for once in over 20 years, felt like a home again. Like a family actually lived in it with the smells of home cooked dinners wafting around past 6 at night.

Whenever I did come upstairs during the day, normally the two were either in her room (Natasha reported that she was trying to teach her some English on a daily basis there) or in the living room watching some children's program or playing with some of the myriad of her toys.

I, one afternoon, was graced by her presence somewhat by accident. My curiosity seemed to come through my genes. Natasha had been called by Fuhrer Fury for some reason or another and she left Emily to play on the rug in the living room. She had been watching some child's tv show, but something else called to her. A certain staircase she had never been taken down before.

I didn't know any different until I saw that little pale face up against the plastic tech boards that were the door to my workshop. She wasn't looking at me – she was looking at everything around me. She seemed so interested in all of the new things she saw in front of her – like she was looking at my toys and was thinking about going to tell her mommy that she wanted that boy's toys instead of her own.

I had been physically testing the heat index of different metal alloys to see which would work best for volcano temperatures. I had on thick dark-tinted goggles and a thick suit of leather and other fabrics dipped in fire retardant material. In English – I looked something like a monster to her.

When I walked over to get her and take her back to her play area, she screamed. She didn't run, but she did scream, and I did hear it through the tech board. Sure, we hadn't known each other more over a week, but she wouldn't be screaming at me – but I realized then why. I tore off the top layer and pulled up my goggles before I kneeled down and opened the door to quell her starting sobs. She still wasn't sure about me for a moment as I stared back at her and reached out to touch her arm, but then I realized what would make her sure it was me. I pulled up the long shirt I had on underneath to show the glowing reactor in my chest. Then, and only then did she walk closer to me and lay her hands on the warm technology lodged in my chest.

"It's just me." I whispered quietly. She seemed content enough for that moment that I dropped the hem of my shirt to pull her in with one arm. She didn't protest, and on the inside I beamed.

Closer, she could see the light coming through the thermal shirt I had to wear underneath that suit, and I will never forget what happened next for my life.

As I held her closer to me in one arm, she reached out her hand and pointed to my chest.

"Papa."

I turned my head quickly to look straight down at her face, trying to understand for a moment what had just happened. I apparently looked as perplexed as I felt – because she turned her hand up and pointed to my face.

"Papa."

Natasha had been at the top of the staircase the entire time watching, but didn't see any need in involving herself. We were having a sacred moment – something even language barriers couldn't stop. She had acknowledged me as her father, as the reason she was here. And I couldn't have been happier.

After a few moments I picked her up in one arm and took her back upstairs only to be met with the dark redhead waiting for me. She immediately complained that I had gotten something akin to soot on Emily's blue dress she was wearing from the gloves I still had on, but I didn't mind in that moment that one of the two women who ran my life was chiding me like normal – I was more interested in the girl who already had wandered off to the couch to grab a toy.

I had a hard time continuing whatever I had been doing downstairs.

Not only that, but just to push my buttons (as well as show me that I wasn't just paying her to follow around my kid), Natasha had Emily call me to dinner through Jarvis.

"Mr. Stark, a call from upstairs."

"What, I'm in the middle of some-"

"Papa. Din-nyer!"

I almost dropped my soldering iron. One, it was damn loud, and two, it hadn't been Natasha telling me dinner was ready like it had been for the last week. And she sounded so very happy to be calling me.

The longer time went on, the happier she seemed to be. At first, she was so delicate and apprehensive to her new world. Now she was giggling and happy to see each of us every night at dinner time. Natasha told me that she had started understanding how her world worked now even – I'm dad, Pepper's mom, and Natasha was her keeper/teacher.

I wasn't sure how she got the idea about Pepper being her mother until I noticed something. Every night before dinner I always kissed Pepper. Was that what gave her that idea? Or the fact that we were always together when she was around? I was curious as to her connection maker, but I also had to realize whose child was the one making connections.

A few days later, both of the women were gone. Natasha was busy playing secret double agent, Pepper had gone to have dinner with family, and it was just me and my daughter after dinner.

Never before did I ever think I was going to have to learn to bathe a 5 year old. Well, I knew I wanted to have kids sometime – but I didn't think I would be the one bathing them. Especially a 5 year old girl.

I found out through a number of ways that when she had lived in Russia, she had never been alone – never slept alone, never ate alone, and never bathed alone. Everyone always did it for her – everyone usually being her grandmother.

She had a strict schedule that I was given a written form of – after dinner, she was bathed, then teeth brushed and face washed before getting into bed for a story.

None of these things I knew how to get a 5 year old to do, much less a 5 year old who didn't understand what I was saying.

But, she was very compliant. After our simple dinner of sandwiches and mac and cheese (during which I half-assed tore apart the apparently needing-to-be-fixed blender), Natasha left and left me with a tiring little girl, dishes, and a long list of chores.

She was compliant to sit patiently while I cleaned up enough for my taste (which was basically move the dirty dishes – cleaning is not my job) but then I had to wrangle her upstairs and find her nightclothes.

Finding the clothes wasn't the problem – nor getting her out of her other clothes so they could be washed – it was just the awkwardness of sitting by the bathtub to wash her. We couldn't really talk to each other. Occasionally she would ask some odd question that Jarvis had to translate and I would answer back only to have to be translated again.

One of her questions was why the thing in my chest was glowing. I couldn't exactly explain the actual concept, or really dumb it down – but I tried my best. She also wanted to know what kind of sick I was to need a light bulb in my chest. Now that was just funny to think about – did she really think there was a light bulb stuck into my chest?

I learned how much shampoo to use on a 5 year olds head. How long they can sit in a bath tub even after it gets cold and still play in the freezing water. It was like pulling teeth to get her out of the damn tub, even if it was freezing cold.

I learned how big her head was, how the curve of her arm felt, and how soft her skin had become. She had no aversion to me washing her back or scrubbing her head or even under her arms – she seemed so comfortable with me, and we hadn't known each other for two weeks yet.

Up until this night, Natasha had always slept in her bed with her. For possibly the first time in her life, she was going to sleep alone. It was going to be hard to explain the concept to her – that Natasha had to go to work, Pepper had gone to see family – and that she needed to be grown up and see if she could sleep alone for one night.

The storytelling was the worst. I could tell her a story all I wanted and she wouldn't understand a word of it. So, instead, I made a great decision on my part – I laid on the bed with her, myself on top of the sheets and she inside, and we watched some taped kids shows on her small TV. She seemed to be really interested in some Dora the Explorer show. I didn't get why. It's about a Mexican girl going on adventures with a monkey and telling a fox to not steal things by yelling in his face "NO SWIPING!" She seemed most interested in doing that, too.

It wasn't too too long before she was nodding off to Dora. This way, I didn't have to garble some Russian and explain to her that she had to sleep alone tonight. If this was the way to make her more independent, so be it.

For some reason or another, I made the decision to get into bed myself. There were a number of things to be done downstairs, but I didn't feel comfortable leaving her alone up here in case she woke up later. If she did, she probably wouldn't enjoy not being able to find me. At least this way my bedroom was the first door to her right when she walked outside, and she knew that.

At some point in time, I fell asleep with the TV on – I was on my 4th rerun of the original Star Trek series when I stopped hearing what was going on. Jarvis turned the TV off in the night, and all was quiet for some time.

A few hours later, however, I heard a noise – a noise I hadn't heard in a while, especially not while half asleep.

I groaned and turned over, not thinking anything of it in my half-dead stupor until I heard a soft voice from across the room.

"P-papa?" she sobbed quietly as she held onto the side of the door.

That woke me up immediately. I was sensible enough to sit up and look over in the light from my chest at the young girl crying in my doorway.

"Emily…come here." I motioned for her to come to me, holding my hand out over the side of the bed for her. I scooted some so I could get my arms out to her once she scrambled over to the side of my bed. I picked her right up and pulled her in under the thousand-count sheets with me.

She was quick to snuggle into me as she sniffled and coughed. I didn't know why she had been crying or why she felt the need to come get in bed with me, but I wasn't complaining. This is what I wanted the whole time – and I finally had that connection with her that I had wanted for the first 12 days.

Natasha was smart enough to click a picture in the morning of the fact that we have the very same asleep face – and both she and Pepper had to comment on how cute it was to see one small head then another large bearded head with the same facial expression of contentment and dozing.


	6. Chapter 6

AN – I want all of you to know that I'm doing something I've never done in this chapter. I can only hope it goes well. I'm always willing to listen to constructive criticism as well as praise. Both work. I just enjoy getting those emails for reviews at work. It makes my sad, boring day. =)

Chapter 6  
I'm a lover, I'm a sinner

She was picking up more English, and getting into more things.

Her curiosity knew no bounds – not that any of us were surprised. Hell, she's my kid, she's going to be getting into things, ripping them apart, trying to put them back together.

Sure, I didn't appreciate when it was the toaster one morning, but at least I knew how to put it back together when she didn't.

Natasha was around less and less. I asked her to start leaving and resuming work for the company after two weeks. Especially after the night that Emily crawled into bed with me, I was certain that she would be comfortable without her there at all times. She was comfortable with me, and I was there all the time.

The small little area in my workshop where I had the kitchen, couch and TV became her area when Natasha was gone. She could watch TV, she could play, and all within 50 feet of me. Sometimes she even wanted to know what I was doing, so I would show her – be it soldering, programming, rewiring, or even just hammering out some kink in one of the car engines.

There was one thing that Pepper mentioned at one of our dinners – which she was now starting to cook whenever she had the time. She kept harping on how proper nutrition was necessary for helping the poor girl gain weight – which she was – and it was a reason for her to come home earlier. Whatever made her stay around longer made me happy, even if it was making me help her cook dinner.

Anyway, that one thing – that the other person who needed to be in her life didn't even know she existed.

"Tony, you need to tell him. He's going to find out sooner or later. He'll be unhappy if he finds out from some tabloid before you tell him!"

"Fine, call him up and tell him to come over for dinner tomorrow. We'll order pizza, get some beer, whatever. Act like we're having a guys night."

"No, you call him Tony."

"Fine. Fine, I'll call him after dinner."

The tension in the room was broken by a fork covered in peas being shoved in my face and a long string of words I didn't recognize.

"Jarvis-"

"She wants to know what they are called, sir."

"Peas, Emily. Peas." Okay, sure I hated them myself, but I was trying to eat them to at least be a 'good role model' as Pepper said I should be.

"Peas!" Afterwards, a few more Russian words were spat out before she continued to eat them one at a time off the end of her fork. Like a typical 5 year old.

I didn't even have to ask before Jarvis chimed in.

"She commented that she likes them."

"Thank you for your wonderful skills, Captain Obvious." I stabbed a few more of the tiny green pearls on my own fork and stared at them for a moment. Why did becoming a parent have to come with so many changes to so many things?

"You're welcome, sir."

"That wasn't a compliment." I set down my fork of skewered English sweets and reached out to my dripping water glass. If only it was smaller, less ice, a brown tangy liquid…but being a parent as well as a super hero had forced a number of hands to lock me away from my favorite pastime for a while now. I felt like I was in withdrawal.

"Tony, stop fighting with the computer program."

"He started it." I was already drawing things in the condensation on the glass.

"You, Mr. Stark, are not fit to raise a child when you are one yourself." She was busy cutting up her meat, and wasn't even looking at me to insult me. Oh, the power this woman felt she had over me – it always set something off in my head that made me want to challenge it…

"Does that mean we both get to call you Mommy? Because I'm willing to incorporate that-"

"Tony!"

"What? She doesn't understand words like incorporate!"

"We shouldn't be talking about our…lives in front of your child."

"Our child. You signed the paperwork too, Mommy."

"Mama?" She said with a mouthful of peas, interjecting her opinion on our conversation. She seemed most intrigued to listen to us argue even if she didn't seem to know what it was about.

"Thank you, Emily, you made my point."

Why did she stay with me again? Oh, right, because she's loved me for years and only recently did we both just come out and say it.

Didn't mean I wasn't still an ass sometimes.

I did a double take, though, to find the little dark and curly one reaching over with her fork and stealing my not-really-touched peas. That was fine. She needed them more than I did.

To make her life a little easier, I picked her up from her chair at the bar and sat her down in my lap so she could steal peas without stretching too far and possibly cracking her head with a fall. She seemed pleased to become so much closer to them and started shoveling them in.

"I didn't expect all of this." I said quietly, just watching the girl in my lap chew happily on something I was never a fan of.

"What did you expect, Tony. That this would all be easy like a house cat? Feed it three times a day and it will take care of itself?"

"No, that's…not what I mean." I couldn't put it into words if I tried. She had been in my life for three weeks, I didn't understand the majority of what she said-

And only with one other person did I care so much.

And that woman was sitting across the island in my kitchen from me.

I looked up after a few seconds of tracing the curls on the back of her head to see Pepper's smile so happy at warm towards the two of us. She knew what I meant. She had to, she's a girl – they have motherly instincts just like guy's have the need to keep their daughters away from any men until they're 30.

Which was going to happen. I have the best deterrent to boyfriends, and he's made of metal.

"I'll call him." I said quietly. In one smooth move I had a 5 year old on my hip and I stood up, replacing her in my seat so I could call the only other person in this world that cared if I suddenly had a child.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

I knew something was up from the minute he called me. First of all, he never called me to see if I could come over. Normally our phone calls involved Tony telling me I was going to do this at this time and bring beer. This time it was more like I want you to, can you.

Something was definitely wrong. I could only imagine what terrible things he had gotten himself into that I hadn't heard yet if he was 'begging' me to come have a guy night.

The door was open when I walked up, and I received my usual greeting from Jarvis. Alright, nothing's wrong that I can see. Nothing looks all that different. Smells a little weird in here. It wasn't the same plastic, metal and antiseptic smell. There was something else mixed. I knew we were having pizza, so there was no way in hell it was a cooked dinner.

I found him lounging in some worn out, I'm sure expensive European, jeans and his normal wife beater with a cutout for his chest piece. He was already throwing down beers and seemed to be watching the Dodgers game.

What the hell? Since when did Tony Stark care about baseball?

"Hey platypus." He threw a beer at me and thank god I had played baseball myself at one point in my life. I sat myself down a good ways away from him on the couch and leaned back.

We kept quiet and just stared at the TV screen for a while, sipping beers as tension seemed to grow. He seemed off, just like I expected.

"What are you hiding?"

"Who said I'm hiding anything?"

"Tony, you called me over here, you're sitting there QUIET. Something is wrong, and I can't figure out what it is. Where's Pepper? She'll tell me."

"She's upstairs. What, can I not have a nice quiet time watching the game with my friend?"

"Alright, whatever. When you decide to tell me, you just let me know."

I wanted so badly to ask Pepper, but if she hadn't told me yet, would she even if I asked? I shrugged it off for a moment.

"Where's dinner?"

"The delivery man is scheduled to arrive in 13 minutes, Mr. Rhodes."

"Thank you, Jarvis. Do you know what's wrong with him?"

"Jarvis, if you say anything, you can tell the forecast every morning on the Weather Channel. I hear they're interested in AI technology to do meteorology."

The AI was silent. Good god, he was hiding something.

"And that's not suspicious at all, having to threaten your own computer to keep quiet."

"No, he just likes to talk. Probably a loose code line somewhere."

In the middle of his sentence, I saw Pepper come down the stairs. She looked normal for a later evening as of recent happenings. She had on a tank top, pajama pants – but out of the corner of my eye I saw something else. Something dark. She didn't wear black at night, and her shirt was a lavender color.

She darted into the kitchen and didn't say a word to the two of us. I wanted to corral her into telling me what was up, or what did he destroy that I had to clean up again. I wanted a straight answer, and that was something I wasn't getting.

After a few more minutes of silence, the AI returned to announce the delivery guy had shown up. Pepper, as to be expected, picked up the pizza from the front door and took it into the kitchen. I moved to get up and help her, but Tony reached out and grabbed my arm.

"Rhodey, I…"

Then something came out of the kitchen. Something small and dark-headed. I couldn't register it at first, but once she stopped moving and Tony picked her up into his lap, my mind clicked on what it was.

"Tony, is that…"

"Emily, remember what I asked you to do?"

The girl was beautiful. Dark hair, light blue eyes – she did look a little small, but when I looked at her face, certain features stood out.

Oh god, it happened.

"Uncle Rhodey!" The little girl went from Tony's lap to having her arms around my neck and holding tight. I hadn't expected this kind of welcome, but…I returned her hug softly.

"Rhodey, meet Emily."

"Your kid."

"My daughter."

"How old?"

"5."

"She has an accent."

"Russian."

"Much English?"

"No." The little girl detached slowly from my neck and sat in my lap. At that moment, Pepper walked in and set the two pizzas on coffee table before sitting on the other side of Tony.

"How long has she been here?"

"Three weeks as of tomorrow." Pepper chimed in as she opened the box. With the scent of pizza, the girl immediately jumped off my lap and wandered over to the cardboard box of hot food. Pepper handed her a small paper plate and put a piece of the supreme pizza on it. I was surprised she was even eating it, but impressed in the same way. Even Tony picked off some of the stuff.

"Who…"

"You know that Russian model that died recently? Ilya lyu-whatever?"

"Yeah, I heard about it. She starved herself to death, right?"

"Yeah. Well, she had a kid and kept it secret to keep her modeling career. Not that it happened that way." He was, for some reason or another, pounding down that beer in his hand. Was he drinking thinking about her previous life? Or what?

"So you got her. No other family, or?"

"Only other person was grandma, and she's dying of cancer in some piss-hole town in Russia."

"…someone elected to give Tony Stark a kid."

"Oh, ha ha sour patch." Our conversation wasn't bothering the two girls behind the man, and the little one was more interested in pizza than anything.

We both reached out for our pizza and beer since there wasn't much else to say. He had a kid. I wasn't surprised, and I'm sure neither was Pepper. What was surprising is that someone decided that he would be a better fitting parent than…say, adopting out. It wasn't like they didn't know about how he conducted himself. And now that he was playing Iron Man…

"If something happens…you know." Tony said quietly, setting down his empty beer bottle and staring off at what was probably nothing. He tried to look like he was looking at the TV, but he wasn't really watching.

That was his way of telling me that he wanted me to be a part of her life just like he and Pepper were. He had her call me Uncle Rhodey – it would make sense that I would be the only other person that he cared about being in her life.

We threw down the pizza within 20 minutes, and it wasn't long after that that the little girl was asleep in Pepper's lap.

"Tony…"

"Shh. Take her up. I'll clean up." Tony seemed like such a different person…now that he had a kid. He kissed both of them before Pepper waved a small goodbye to me and took the girl upstairs. Tony spent the time afterwards picking up empty bottles and throwing out the pizza box in the kitchen. I couldn't help myself – I followed him and actually watched him do it.

"Who are you and what did you do with that guy that used to get fall down drunk and bring home 2 girls a night?"

He didn't say anything at first. He was more interested in putting away dishes that were laying out in the sink from probably lunch.

"You have to grow up…when you have a kid." He mumbled. He didn't seem particularly happy about what he said, but that didn't stop him. I felt like hugging him. His time in the desert had make him change his thoughts on his life – but a child had forced his growing up to go faster than it already had been.

"I'm gonna go home. Have an early morning tomorrow."

"Yeah. Goodnight, platypus." He waved a plate at me and sighed as I walked out of the kitchen towards the front door. He didn't seem to be enjoying family life

But it was a complete change.


	7. Chapter 7

AN – I apologize profusely for the fake out! Apparently someone got through to this because they reviewed…but every time I post a chapter I go on the website itself and read it. After reading it, I realized I technically threw together two separate chapter ideas! Tony/Pepper staying together for the first time with Emily there, then Emily going outside for the first time. ;;…I feel quite embarrassed. So, I'm fixing it. The first night together will be first. I'll post 8 quickly after this. It's mostly done – I can only hope it some sort of consolation!

Chapter 7  
Where you can always find me

Days flashed by. Nights came and went. Emily always started the night in her own bed, but woke up the next morning under my chin. It wasn't helping my plight in making Pepper move in. I was hoping that I would somehow convince her to finally stay – but she was worried about intruding on father daughter time at night. She didn't know how Emily would react if we were in bed together.

I suggested we try and see what happened.

So, that's what we did. After a long Friday of work for her, and play for the Stark duo, we ate dinner as a family as to be expected. What happened after was what was different.

As normal, we both tucked her into her covers and laid with her for a little while. She was learning more words, learning some grammar, and able to keep up to a degree. I had to watch what I was saying in front of her. I learned that when she repeated one of my many exclamations later to Pepper when she threw a toy and hit her lamp. I didn't hear the end of that.

"Goodnight Emily." I said quietly as she hid under the blankets of her lavender bed with her favorite cat stuffed animal she named Anya.

She grinned at both Pepper and I on the side of her bed. I looked forward to her sleepy smiles at night like I once looked forward to the bottom of that scotch bottle. The difference was I woke up with a little girl in my arms instead of a massive headache and bleary eyes.

Pepper and I both kissed opposite cheeks before leaving her to her moonlit room, at least for the next few hours.

"What time does she normally crawl into bed with you?"

"Jarvis?" I called up as we laid on the couch, the TV on in the background.

"Miss Stark has a pattern of leaving her bedroom between 12:30 and 1:15."

"So we just have to be in there before midnight. Sometimes she comes a little early…Jarvis, alert us to any change in her sleeping."

"As usual, sir."

Alone time was sacred anymore. With a child, alone time meant sleep time and that was about it. Even bathroom time was a little iffy. For some reason, kids have this thing of wanting to know what you're doing in there. It got reeeaallly awkward down in the workshop sometimes when I retreated into the little bathroom in there.

"It's…really been different around here. Toys everywhere, you're eating regularly…you've almost become a normal 37-year-old man, Tony Stark!"

"Yeah, like that will happen. Maybe I should have a full-on weekend bender with you, ruin it all. Rhodey could take her…" The idea was so tantalizing. Pepper and I off somewhere, a three day weekend, no clothes, that soft skin against mine in a way I haven't had in weeks-

"Not so early, Tony, and you know that." She turned around from her comfortable place cuddled under my arm so that we were eye to eye.

"I was kidding, I know that. She still hasn't been here long enough for me to feel comfortable…leaving her alone."

"Me either, Tony."

"Then how can you leave her here every night?"

She didn't say anything to that. She didn't have an answer, and I knew when she turned her face away and sat back down in the crevice between my arm and my body. If she made it through the night fine with us together, then everything would be in perfect set for her to move in officially. This was the last thing she could think of to keep her from staying in the house. There couldn't be anything else!

My free hand reached over to run the back of my fingers softly along her cheek, my head cocked just so slightly to see her reaction better. She didn't need to answer me, we both understood.

"If tonight goes well, promise me." I whispered to her, hoping I could snag her. Plus, I had an ace up my sleeve. I had already had an interesting conversation with my daughter about that today –

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

I was deep into some tiny wiring, magnifying glasses and all with Emily not but 5 feet from me watching some odd TV show and she was yelling at it in Russian. Sure, Jarvis was of use to clear anything up as necessary. If she wanted something and didn't know how to express it in English, she looked up at the ceiling and said it. She had learned that the computer in the ceiling would explain her. The majority of her words were still Russian and she was getting better at her understanding of basic English, but we needed a gap bridging ability. I really started to notice it more and more at night.

I could tell she was mumbling to me about having bad dreams, but I couldn't understand what she was telling me. The only thing I knew to do was hold her close and show her I was there. No one had ever taught me what to do with a sobbing 5 year old girl who crawled in bed with me and wouldn't stop.

All of this would have been easier if I had just knocked up a French model. I knew French just fine.

But I had an idea hit me.

If I could make wireless headphones for my mp3 player (not an iPod, but not too far from similar technology; I just made it myself) that would block sound other than Pepper's voice, why couldn't I make an ear plug that would translate her words in my ear?

It only took the morning to create the small plug that fit snuggly into my ear. It came with Pocket Jarvis for my own translation abilities as well, but was still connected to the house mainframe. This was only a test run. Later, I planned to find a way for the words that came out of my mouth in reply would be in Russian if necessary. How I was going to do that, I had no idea, but hey. I made Iron Man in a cave. With some scraps.

Once it was wiggled deep enough into my ear and I could hear the dulcet British tones well enough, I turned my rolling chair around to look at the back of my little girl.

She was filling out. The doctors said she was reacting her goal weight, and seemed to be growing again. She was stunted a few months of growth because of the malnutrition, but we had put her back on track. She looked so much healthier than the day I met her first. And she seemed so much happier.

"Jarvis, ask Emily what she's doing." I whispered.

The AI asked of the little girl quietly, and she replied in Russian back very matter-of-factly.

"Watching Gabby Gabby. They do it wrong!"

Jarvis complied quickly after the words came out of her mouth.

Success. The translation process worked.

I gave her an odd look before looking up to the giant TV she was watching. On the screen were colorful monsters dancing around like she was, but she was doing it a little differently.

They were singing about sharing and colors and adding dances to it all. Kind of reminded me of some odd drug binges I had in college that involved watching Sesame Street for 3 hours. I wasn't really happy to relive that moment in my time, but she seemed to enjoy the show…as much as she said they did it wrong.

"What's wrong with it?"

"They do it wrong! It's supposed to be like this!" She proceeded to do some sort of dance unlike the one shown on the screen before giggling and running over to get pulled up into my lap.

Are all 5 year olds this endearing? Do they tug at everyone's heart this way, or just mine? Pepper had said that she felt strongly about her, but as strongly as I do?

"Em, I want to tell you something." She was busy grabbing at my tools on the table. She finally settled on a wrench and dragged it into her lap to look at it. She just nodded her head while she played with the hole meant for 15 mm nuts between her fingers.

"Mama is going to stay here tonight with me. When you get in my bed tonight, she'll be there. Okay?" I was looking at her, but she was busy finding every cranny of the steel wrench.

She looked up only when Jarvis talked to her through the plastic screen above my head and stared at it for a moment while he spoke. She seemed perplexed at what he said (since I knew she understood that there was a man that lived in the walls of the house), but had nothing to say about it. She kept playing with the wrench between her tiny fingers and didn't particularly seem interested in whatever I or the computer had to say.

Okay, so she wasn't interested. So, I sat her down from lap and decided to scrap the idea for the moment. Maybe later she would be more receptive.

She went back to the couch to watch TV, and I returned to my soldering.

It was only a few minutes later that she screamed and started sobbing that I remembered that she was over behind me. And that she had a wrench.

I was quick to jump up and throw the soldering gun across the room. I had more, I didn't care. It was cold anyway.

She was screaming crying because the wrench I had forgotten she had taken had fallen on her foot. She had broken her big toenail and was bleeding more than I thought a 5 year old could. She had her arms out and was wailing for me to fix everything. No one ever taught me how to fix these kinds of things.

"Oh, shit, okay…Emily, calm down…" She was reaching out for me and making my ears ring. The ear piece was ringing from the loud noise and I threw it somewhere just to get it away from me. I knew I would have to find it later, but I didn't give a damn. How do I keep a little girl from piercing my ear drums?

I picked her up and whisked her off to the kitchen area and sat her down on the counter so I can look at her toe. Yeah, she had taken off the nail completely and I had blood on my shirt and a trail had followed us on the tile.

"Dummy, butterfingers, put up the tools and clean up the blood on the floor. Emily, calm down-" I took hold of her foot, and she cried more. I wasn't anywhere near her toe yet! Had I been this bad as a kid?

I didn't know how to help it stop bleeding without stemming the flow with pressure, but she wouldn't let me near it.

You wandered over with the first aid kit as well as a spray antiseptic. That was the place to start – but more than likely it would make her scream more from the burning…

"Hold still, Em." I went for it anyway and kept hold of her ankle while I sprayed her toe. As to be expected, she screamed louder and tried to get her ankle out of my grasp. She was chewing on my last nerve, but this was part of being a parent, according to anyone of worth. Pepper, Happy, Rhodey had all said the same thing – kids meant testing limits. And this was one of them.

After a few seconds she calmed down to where she was just regularly crying and not screaming her head off. The blood was slowing, finally, and I probably could wrap it up finally.

"Gauze." I reached out to the kit on the counter and dug around until I found the small soft roll. As quickly as I could without her screaming more, I wrapped it tightly around her big toe and ripped it off before taping it down with medical tape. That should stem it for now…

She was still weepy, but absolutely quieter. I was so relieved when I scooped her back up off the counter and wandered with her out the door of the workshop.

"I think we're done down there for the day." I said with a sigh. She was busy clinging to my side and seemed winded by the whole ordeal. A nap was probably in order after some lunch. I could only hope that everything else that day wouldn't involve anymore blood or screaming 5 year olds.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

I never said the talk went well, I just said we talked about. Pepper had cooed and coddled the dark-headed child when she came home and asked about what happened. Emily obliged with a quick-fire rendition of her day's happenings complete with method acting and fake crying. If the kid was 5 and doing this, I was frightened to see what she was going to do at 14 and going through the rough teenage girl time.

Fast forward, and here we were. Two 'parents' allowed some alone time.

She didn't answer me. She just got up and walked into the kitchen. For someone who had never really known of commitment before this, she seemed to be the one that was not good at it.

After some wine, a few kisses and some lost shirts, we retreated up to my bedroom. She was first to crash between the sheets in her matching bra and underwear, and I wandered in the bathroom to take care of physical needs and anything else I saw fit, like staring at my scraggly ass self for a few seconds.

What I walked out to I didn't expect.

As the light turned off from behind me and I looked to my bed in my own 'natural' glow, I saw Pepper and Emily together in bed and fast asleep.

I fought away the tear that fought for birth, but couldn't get rid of the goofy smile I'm sure was on my face. At least no one would see. I found my space behind Pepper's thin form and pulled her back into my chest. My arm slid over her and my hand rested on the soft cotton of Emily's nightgown. She only stirred slightly under Pepper's chin, and with that image in my mind, I drifted off.


	8. Chapter 8

AN – and here's the other half I had written by mistake for 7, but now it's own with better ties! =3 Please feel free to comment when something doesn't quite fit the rest of the story in this chapter. I had to adapt it a little… if you notice something, let me know and I'll fix it for the rest of the readers. You'll also get a very nice shoutout. =3

Chapter 8  
The Outside World

Since the night had gone so well, Pepper had started setting things in motion to start living here. She wanted two weeks, and as much as I wanted to go clean her apartment out myself and have her come home to an empty apartment, I knew better than to open my mouth. If I was going to start learning something about women, it was going to be learning my place. The fact that she had finally caved was the best thing anyone could have ever given me – you know, apart from the little human not far behind me.

Pepper and I had…argued…about my 'care' in the daytime. After letting Emily almost break her toe with a steel tool, Pepper had wanted either a –daycare, or b – a nanny to watch her at all times. There was absolutely no fucking way I was putting Emily in daycare. Furthermore, It didn't feel right without her down there, and bringing Natasha back felt cold and like I was putting my own child off. I had pushed people away for years. I finally found someone who wouldn't care if I cried, yelled, or showed any emotional problems and I could spend every waking minute with her. And I intended to.

"What are you doing with your dolls, little miss Stark?" I called out from one of my tables. I was soldering a new chip for the navigation system. Dummy had already broken one. If you want something done, you have to do it yourself and not give it to your idiot robot.

"I'm playing model." That earpiece I had was still working fine, even after chunking it across the room. Everything was clear and I had even upgraded for better slang translation.

"Model? What do you do when you play model?" I realized something about it too. Listening in on her playtime would be a great way to learn more about her in ways that weren't basely physical. I could learn more about how she was mentally.

Jarvis translated for me again in his quiet voice only reserved for her corner of the room.

She held up the dolls, both Barbie variants, and stated again with supreme confidence.

"This girl wants to be a model, and so does her friend, but they need to find a picture guy to take care of them."

Could she mean more than just take pictures of the two girls? It was very likely. Models slept with photographers all the time. Did she witness her mother do that? Did she see the hideous underbelly of modeling before the age of 5?

She picked up a Ken doll and held him in one hand, and the girls in another. She had the man yell at the two girls, then she dropped one of them. The remaining two dolls were forced together and made kissy sounds.

Yeah, I was right. Especially from the words that came out of her mouth.

"If you come back here cow I'll take you to slaughter!" She had yelled. It took the AI a minute to find slaughter for some reason. He informed me it was a mismatch of the French and Russian word for it. The man had been French, and screaming at her mother about her being too fat. In front of her child.

The way she portrayed the girl who had been dropped only told me more that the doll that had been let go of had been her mother.

I left the girl to her own devices for a few minutes and removed my translating ear piece to put in another – my own Starktooth. I still think it would sell better with that name, or maybe Sharktooth…

"Jarvis, call Pepper." I said at a normal talking voice, having turned back to my work table. The translation worked, but now I needed a way to translate certain things that I said to her.

"WHAT." Oh, good, she's in a great mood.

"Having a good day honey?"

"…Yes, Tony. What do you need?"

"I think we need to find a child…shrink for Emily." The word was sour in my mouth. The idea of a shrink looking at anyone close to me made me uncomfortable in my skin. They wanted me to go to therapy after my parents died – so I did for one session, but the guy creeped me out. He kept trying to draw Oedipal conclusions, and I wasn't about to listen to a guy tell me I was in love with my mother. Against Obi's wishes, I walked out after 20 minutes.

She sighed on the other side and I heard her shooing people out of her office as she tried to hide it from me. I heard at least one barked command of out, the large door shutting, then she returned.

"Why do you say that?" She was back to being normal and calm – the frightened 'mother' she was.

"I started listening to her play dolls-"

"You always hear her play. She sits in the workshop all day-"

"I made an earpiece translator, remember me telling you about it? I can finally understand what she's doing over there with all those naked Barbies. I'll get you one too, but that's not the point – I just think she…might need to be seen." I didn't know how I was going to qualify sending my child to a psychiatrist or whatever the hell. I just thought it would be a good idea.

The language barrier would be the problem.

There was a soft silence for a second as I heard little one mumbling off to herself back there, wondering what her mind was playing out with those dolls now…but this was a little most necessary than eavesdropping on her playtime.

"There are a lot of things we need to do for her. That's one of them. We need to take her to a specialist and see how far she is in development – she should be going into preschool in September, Tony. That's the best way for her to learn more English and to grow normally."

Let her go to school? How could I let her go out into the world? She had already been dumped in a foreign land with a foreign language and not knowing a single person. It took days for her to be comfortable here. How long would it take for her to be comfortable in a school setting?

I didn't deny that she needed to go to school. That was natural progression of age. I was honestly curious as to her intelligence. If she was my kid, she had to have some higher knowledge than normal, and I wanted to know sooo very badly.

"Yeah…uh, I'll have Jarvis look for some…specialist or whatever. Maybe whoever they are can tell us where we can find a therapist, shrink-"

"A therapist, more than likely."

"Yeah, that. I'll work on it. You can go back to screaming at whoever you need to scream at."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark. I just couldn't do it without your approval." Those sarcastic comments got me so hot.

"Love you Potts. I'll be slaving over a stove!"

She hung up on me. I felt like such a little wife waiting at home and watching the kids when she was busy in an office – what was once my office – bringing home the bacon. I knew I had an apron around here somewhere…

As I took off my Starktooth and turned my chair back to the girl behind me, I noticed that she wasn't sitting on the carpet anymore. Instead, she was 2 feet from me and holding her arms up. Behind her was a robotic arm mimicking her movements. For some reason, Dummy loved her. Fine with me, he could keep her out of trouble for me…

Quickly I stuck the ear piece back in one ear and picked her up and just stared at the whining arm as I settled her on my hip. She quickly regained my attention

"Juice, papa?"

Thank god she had at least learned certain things in English. Off we went to the kitchen area to get her favorite cup with a chirping machine behind me.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

A week later, we had an appointment with a diagnostician. Was that necessary? Hell, I didn't think so. There wasn't anything wrong with her. Why take her to a diagnostician? Pepper and I had already gone through this – that was the only choice. The worst part about it was that the appointment had only been available after a large press conference having to do with Iron Man. Therefore, I had to go up to the company offices. Without anyone to look after Emily beforehand…I took her with me.

Emily had been so very curious when I was dressing. Pepper had long since set a suit out for me to wear to the press conference, and Emily had only seen me in jeans and wife beaters. She wanted to feel my jacket and play with my red and gold tie (that I had specially made).

One of the best parts of the fun was dressing her up. She was easy to choose for – okay, that's a joke. Pepper and Natasha had long since bought two closets worth of clothing for her. What do you put on a 5 year old to take her to a teacher? I guessed some form of dress, but I had hundreds to choose from. I chose a red dress with purple flowers. I could at least try to match us…but then I thought about it. No one would really see right? Or maybe I just wanted us to match for my sake. It was one way I could claim her as my own in my head.

After trying to figure out how to explain to her where exactly we were going, I realized that we were going to be late if I stayed there and kept trying to think of a way to tell her about the day's plans.

With both sets of ear pieces (one for myself, one for Pepper) and mine set in, I picked up the pale little girl in one arm and briefcase in the other as I set out the front door. She didn't fight going outside, and Jarvis called after us to bid us a good day. She waved as the door shut behind us and I threw on my sunglasses to go out into the morning sun.

Happy was…happy (god, what a terrible pun) to see a much more pleasant and healthy looking little girl than the first day he had seen her.

"Hey Happy, long time no see." I said somewhat breathlessly as he opened the back door to the Bentley to let us crawl inside.

"She looks so much better, Mr. Stark."

"Yeah, thanks Happy." I smiled as I climbed in after setting her down on the Italian leather seats. He shut the door behind me and I pulled Emily up into my lap. She seemed really interested in looking out the heavily tinted window at the disappearing coastline as we went farther inland to the company.

"Where are we going, Papa?"

Having this ear piece in all the time was going to make it easier on her and on me.

"To see Mama at work. Then we're going to meet someone that wants to talk to you." I said quietly as she looked out the window with her nose pressed to the glass.

Emily had her own ear piece that translated what I said. She heard the English, but afterwards she heard the Russian. There were a few bugs for slang, but I was working on that over time.

She didn't answer me, instead she kept herself busy looking at the cars we passed by. Happy, as he was instructed to as always, was speeding down the highway towards the towering buildings of the company compound.

What I hadn't expected was the press turnout in front of the main office building.

Happy pulled up to the front door slowly, through the wave after wave of reporters and cameras waiting to see me step out of my car.

Within seconds I had Pepper on the phone. I hadn't intended this to be the day that the world saw Tony Stark with a child.

"Yes dear?" It was only 10 am and she already sounded beat and apparently sarcastic. I had a feeling the reporters had been harassing her that Tony Stark hadn't been seen outside of his home in over a month. That's why they were swarming in wait.

"Pepper, the reporters…what do you think I should do?"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

What do you think he should do? I'm always willing to listen =3 I don't exactly have the idea cemented just yet…so you might sway me with reviews and comments!


	9. Chapter 9

AN – I'm sooo soo sorry. I've been writing this for a while (I usually start the next chapter the minute I post the old one) and I've been having a HELL of a time at my job, school is soon to start, and I have cleaning to do for my parental yearly visit. So much work, such an insane amount of time…

Chapter 9  
What do you want from me?

"Tony, you get out and leave Emily with Happy. She'll be fine. Tell him to run to the back of the building. I'll pick her up."

I had people banging their microphones on the windows of my Bentley. Number one, my goddamn car. Don't be doing that shit to my car. Two…I didn't want to leave her. I wanted to take her with me. But I had no choice. Really, I had no SMART choice. So, being..semi-intelligent on some things, I did as told. I handed the 5 year old over to Happy and dashed out of the car.

Microphones were immediately shoved in my face, bright flashing lights everywhere around me. I was so happy I had worn my designer sunglasses. But as the Bentley drove away, there was a sinking feeling in my chest. There was no way that she wasn't upset for me leaving her, but I had to tread forward.

Questions were screamed at me about where I had been for a month, what Iron Man had been doing, and if I was training with some secret guy that had been training a lot of celebrities. I knew better than to really say anything. If they wanted things out of me, like why I hadn't been active in the world scene for 4 weeks, they had to make an appointment.

"Mr. Stark, have you been in Brazil learning Jiu-Jitsu?"

"What kind of razor do you use, Mr. Stark?"

"Tony, will you be at the charity event for wounded soldiers of Iraq later this month?"

"No, but I'm interested – my own, I have specific hair needs – and yes, more than likely. Everything else, you'll just have to wait!" I pushed my way through the mob and finally into the building. But, instead of going upstairs to the office, I ran to the back of the building. There was a back door that the staff used. That had to be where Pepper was going to get her.

I passed a number of people who said hi to me. People whose names I didn't remember. Chicks I remember banging their first month here. No names, just faces. All I could think about was my poor daughter and making sure she was happy.

I got to the door after tripping a secretary and almost falling in a trash can the janitor was pushing only to find Pepper walking in the door holding a sniffling Emily on her hip.

"She's fine, she's fine. Aren't you little one?" She cooed to the little girl who was more interested in hiding her face in the CEO's pale neck than talking. That's fine. She's somewhere she's never been. She can be frightened if she wants, I thought.

Pepper and I got into an elevator together, her standing right in front of me and leaning back against my chest softly. Emily wasn't the only tired one here. I snaked one of my arms around her waist as she leaned on me and kissed along her cheek, whispering in her open ear.

"Hard day, dear?"

"You wouldn't know, now would you?"

"Come on Pepper, I've been taking care of a 5 year old."

"Still doesn't come close to running a company AND setting up a press conference!"

"Nothing ever does." I sighed. I gave her that. She had this ability I never did. Wasn't that why I hired her in the first place?

"Who's going to take care of Emily while we're talking?" I said quietly. She looked half asleep. It would be easier to do this if she slept through most of it. I reached my open hand up to run my fingers softly along the edge of the tired little girl's face and through her well kept curls.

"Natalie is open to keep her in my office for a few minutes." She cooed softly as the little girl reset herself on her shoulder and whined a little as she reached her hand out to grab mine. I guessed that meant she wanted me, so Pepper and I exchanged the 35 pound body from her shoulder to my hip. She was quick to hide her face in my neck, so I leaned my chin on her forehead and pulled Pepper over against me on my other side. This was all I needed in my cozy little world, but I knew better than to think I would be left alone to my pleasures.

The doors opened and Pepper was quickly walking away from me. I jumped and sped up to catch to behind her, passing secretaries and assistants. You would've thought I was carrying an RPG or some sort of automatic weapon with the way those women were staring at me. Apparently the idea of me having a child was akin to a man walking in with a gun.

Once we were over at Pepper's office and she was opening the door, one of the more idiotic secretaries wandered over in her loud shoes and with her loud voice.

"Good morning Mr. Stark! And who is this new employee?" She giggled. Why did I hire 22 year-olds for so long? They never grew up. And I was only finding this out AFTER they'd been here for years.

"This is Emily…miss, uh…" And I never remembered them. I think I slept with this one. But maybe her hair was different…and her mouth. Probably a really really drunk lay. I resigned myself to that.

"McKenzie Arnold, sir. She's super cute! Awh, don't be shy…" Alright, this chick is annoying as fuck. Happily, Pepper was quick to call me into her office, so I dashed inside and shut the door right on the 25-year-old's face.

Inside were a few toys, a blanket on the marble floor, and a waiting Natasha ready to take the poor girl. She was quick to coo at her in her mother tongue, which made the girl stir and sit up a little for when I passed her over. The two talked for a few minutes, probably because they hadn't seen each other in days, and that freed me up to get some work done.

"Okay, so...Iron Man. Yeah. Let's do this." Pepper was quick to start reassembling my wrinkled clothing from holding a child, and checked my tie before giving him a soft kiss. It was a rare occurrence I got any kind of affection in a work-place setting. I couldn't do anything but grin.

"Now, this is more about where you've been and what we've been doing to keep the world at peace while you've been…" She seemed to have something click in her mind, so she turned away from me and pulled some cue cards from her desk and put them in my jacket pocket.

"You should actually read them this time. For once, if you don't, it's not just your life you're ruining. It's hers." That didn't sound like the normal grumbling Pepper I was used to over the years. It was mothering Pepper. She was worried for the safety of our child, and knowing me and press conferences, I was prone to just blurt out that I have a kid and that's why I haven't been around. Instead of destroying terrorist organizations and finding massive stores of my weapons in the wrong hands, I'd been teaching English and cleaning up 5-year-old's messes.

"What about the company as a whole?" I asked as she took off my sunglasses and put them in my front pocket with the cue cards.

"We're making medical breakthroughs in prosthesis, cancer treatment and we're testing new drugs to treat lupus. That's the best things to talk about if we're talking about Iron Man. If someone is going to gallivant around in a metal suit killing people, might as well show how we're also helping better lives."

"I don't kill innocent people-" she made it sound like I was killing everything in sight, which I did not appreciate. I knew she hated me going out and doing my super hero thing, but she made it sound like I was spraying bullets into a crowd and hoping the bad guys were somewhere inside.

"I know you don't, but you understand what I mean."

"Where was I this month…" I said in more of a thought out loud way. I dug out the cue cards and stared at the little blue boxes of paper with 'my notes' written on them.

"You can't be serious Pep-"

"I didn't write them Tony, and you know that. That's their job-"

"Fury wrote this, seriously? I spent two weeks in Russia and two weeks here under rest orders?"

"You were training. Natalie went with us to translate, which explains why she was gone too."

"And explains why I know more Russian now than I ever expected to…fine, whatever."

"Alright, we need to leave. Downstairs, come on." She shooed me out of the office, and her behind. Right before the door closed, a wail rang out.

Much to Pepper's dislike, I was quick to turn right around and found a curly dark head whining and running toward me. She must have wanted down from Natasha to chase after us.

"Em, it's okay, I won't be gone long…"

That didn't keep her from clinging to me as I squatted down to her level. She had a hold on my jacket and shirt, and didn't seem interested in letting go. Her lip was protruding and her eyes were a soft, wet red. She was begging me not to go in her horribly cute child way.

"Tony, we need to go."

Within a few seconds of thought, I picked my daughter back up and started walking out of the room. Thankfully, Natasha followed me out and Pepper, looking quite unhappy, continued on in front.

"We'll just take her down with us, and Natasha can keep her down in one of the hidden offices until we're done. Is that better Emily?" She was too busy hiding her face in my neck to care what I said. I understood. She was in a weird place and didn't want to be left alone. Maybe, since she had just been dumped by her mother's family, she had abandonment problems.

Back into the elevator we went and all the way down to the first floor. There was a press room there, and next to it was an office that had been emptied because of the conference. With much whining and a few tears, I left Emily with Natasha and walked around into the bright sunshiny room full of people.

After some more picking and a ghosted kiss so I wouldn't have lipstick on me, Pepper and I walked up towards the podium. She was comfortably behind me, just as Rhodey had been that day long ago.

"Good morning. Let's see if I can get through another one of these." A general chatter of laughs rippled through the crowd of flashing lights, and I pulled out my cards to lay on the podium.

"Several of the world's leaders have been calling to my attention my leave of absence from the world's stage. Some have said that Iron Man has left us. This is not true. Even super heroes need some time to rekindle-"

"Even though many have died due to your needs." God I hate her. WHY did someone let her in here? Hadn't Vanity Fair fired her yet? Damn she's a bitch, and bad in bed at that.

"I understand that people are asking super-human things of a mere human man who does need time to rest so that he can be at peak conditions for performing duties, Miss Everhart." I knew Pepper wanted to go wring her neck as much as I did, but there were too many people in here for us to start waging a war.

"For those of you who would like an explanation as to my absence, I was-"

Another wail. But this one was louder. And in the room. To the right of me was a screaming crying black curly head running straight for me.

Oh. Shit.

The only choice I had at the moment, seeing as flashbulbs were going off everywhere, was to squat down and wrap her up in my arms to quell her bawling. She really must have abandonment problem huh.

Pepper griped at me to stay down behind the podium with her as she sobbed and cried into my jacket. Natasha was not far behind and ran over in her heels to kneel down with me.

"What happened?" I whispered angrily at the dark redhead. She looked as unhappy at me as I was at her.

"She kicked and screamed as soon as you left! Did you know she can open doors?"

"I thought she was too short to reach the handles…"

"She can jump, Mr. Stark!"

Pepper was leaning over me to talk into the microphone and explain my absence, but too many people were shouting questions at her about the little girl I was now hiding.

"Who is the little girl, Miss Potts?"

"Why was she screaming? Are she and Tony related?"

Even if we did try to cover it up, she looked too much like me, and she had come screaming crying _to me_. This would be all over the news within 30 minutes and more than likely the story would be that I had a child that I was hiding. Why hide?

I stood up, still cradling the sniffling 5 year old to my chest. My nice blue dress shirt was soaking wet, and I was being filmed, but that was part of the fun of parenthood. Not looking your best because your child decided to 'add to your wardrobe'. At least that's what every woman would tell you. My mother didn't care for me wiping my slobber on her as a child…

"Uh, hi, yeah. This is…uh, Emily."

I thought Pepper was going to rip out my spine from behind me. Flashbulbs were going off everywhere. Reporters were screaming questions at me. The one thing I did notice was Pepper smacking me and pushing me on to get out of the way. She was about to have some massive cleanup, and I wasn't going to be of any help standing there. I tucked Emily more under my jacket, as much to keep her from view as make her calmer. I don't know, it made sense at the time.

Natasha dragged me and the now scared and hiding Emily out of the room and up the elevator. The first thing she did once the doors were closed was hit me across the head.

"What the hell was that for!"

"The only worse thing you could have done was state her full name and say her mother is a dead model you had a one night stand with! Do you not realize what this is going to do to her, to you, to Pepper?"

I didn't expect her to say anything of value, much less try to remind me that opening my mouth was probably detrimental to my daughter's life. If I hadn't been stopped, I was going to say she was my daughter. But it wasn't the best idea to let that out just yet, or at least at a press conference like that.

We went back up to Pepper's office and locked the door behind us. Emily was interested to see where we were, and wanted down so she could plop on the blanket and play with her toys. Well, at least that hadn't scarred her horribly.

Whatever Pepper was about to do to me was going to scar me, though.

I sat myself at her desk and turned to stare out the large windows at the top of the building. I could see the town skyline in the morning sunlight, and it did nothing for me really. I gave up this chair for a number of reasons, and one of them burst through the door a few minutes later.

"What were you thinking? Why didn't you just run out with her?"

"What did you expect me to do!"

"Something other than stand up and show her to the press!"

"I at least hid her somewhat-"

"But they still have pictures-"

"Both of you!" Natasha broke the squabbling. Thankfully. If that kept going, she would probably have made some sort of crack at my previous life style and how I shouldn't have a kid in the first place.

"You have an appointment across town in an hour." She reminded Pepper as a good assistant should. I should give her a bonus check later for this. The fallout was going to be muuuch less later than now, and I was happy to have that.

"Yes, thank you…we should grab something on the way out." She sounded a little flustered, but she immediately pulled it back into professional Pepper that I knew for so long. I was quickly up and out of the chair only to be met by little hands holding themselves up to grab towards me.

"How do you know we're talking about you, huh?" I asked Emily quietly. She was too enthralled to poke at the metal device hidden well under the navy blue I was wearing, even if it was a little wet from her tears earlier. It still made a little ping under all the cloth, though, and it seemed to amuse her.

"I don't know how long we're going to be in there. We probably should get her lunch." Pepper clicked in front of me, walking in the elevator and pushing the button to go down again.

"Yeah…where can we get drive through pasta?" I commented as I followed Pepper out of the office and stood comfortably next to her as we stood in the metal box designed to take us back to the ground.

"Pasta?" She piped up, clearly happier with the word she did understand quite well.

"Yes, little miss Stark, pasta."

When we walked out the back door, Happy was standing there with the car, already ready and waiting to take us to some horribly expensive diagnostician.


	10. Chapter 10

AN – Here's what happened. I PROMISED myself that I would get another chapter done in Spare Moments before I put another one up here. I started it first, and I need to finish it. I'm almost 6 weeks behind in it. But this one just flows so much easier, even though I have no idea where I'm going. All of this you read today was straight impulse.  
I start school on Wednesday, and golf season begins next Wednesday. I really really plan on getting this full throttle ahead into some action soon enough. I need this filler chapter to start my jumping…

Chapter 10  
This is All I Can Take

The diagnostician was boring and overly winded. The only remotely interesting thing was watching Emily play with the lego blocks. She built a house pretty quickly with rooms, decorations, and even made people to go in them. Pepper and I were in one, and her room didn't have a wall. The doctor was talking to Pepper, and I was trying to play with my daughter. The older man griped at me that I was playing with her – that this was supposed to be a test of her intelligence and abilities. Not me showing her how to do things.

I wasn't trying to show her anything. I just wanted her to not seem so alone. Not that she seemed to mind playing alone, but…you get what I mean.

We were gone within an hour and Emily seemed worn out. She was asleep and drooling on my grey Italian suit before the car was put into drive.

"So…what exactly did that guy say? He had the worst accent…" I was busy pushing a few of her curls out of her face while Pepper was punching numbers on her blackberry like she was trying to play the world's fastest whack-a-mole. People needed her attention. Who's surprised – it was probably all fires myself and the fruit of my loins threw gasoline on. For years the press had waited for an illegitimate child to come out of the woodwork, and they finally had their wish. I felt like I should do something about it – but I knew she would tell me to amuse myself otherwise. I guess I just didn't need to do press conferences anymore. Not after the last two.

"It was Russian, Tony. At least he could talk to her normally." She mumbled as she was too busy picking through emails, responding to few and deleting many. I could see from my spot beside her what they were. Some were in-house corporate stuff, others were press e-mails forwarded from Natasha with people begging for statements about the press conference. She seemed to be deleting those.

"What did he say, then? I was too busy-"

"Not paying attention, Mr. Stark? Oh yes, because you do that so well!" That stopped her. She was too busy staring right at me to be pushing buttons anymore. I knew she could do the job, but something was pounding in her brain first. I could see the wheels turning at rapid speed inside. She was holding everything in.

"This guy was telling you if you're daughter can go to school or not, and you were too busy thinking about something else! How can you say you're raising a child when all you want is the good part and not the bad? You want to play with her and protect her, but you don't look past that. Do you not know what the press will do to her, Tony? We're already short on privacy, now you and I are raising a child? You aren't even mature enough to take care of _yourself_, much less a 5 year old! What did you expect? That I would do it or Natalie would do it? No. You signed those papers. You clean the messes, you take her to the doctor, _you_ be the parent! I'm here for support when necessary, not to make sure that the kids are playing well together!"

So that was a lot to digest at once.

"So tell me how you really feel."

Okay, so I couldn't think of anything else to say to that. Why not throw fire right on top of it?

"You asked me to move it when it happened. I knew you would. I _expected_ you would. You wanted me to move in and take care of her with you. It's more like babysit the two of you. When she dropped that wrench on her foot – didn't you _expect _that 5 year old plus heavy object means injury? She's not you, Tony. She doesn't play with tools all day and when she drops things on her foot she just stares at it and hopes it'll be better in a little while." She had to stop to take a breath. I had to stop to take a breath. Emily was fussing on my shoulder, but overall still asleep even though Pepper was venting so close to both of us. I guess it had been a long time coming, otherwise her face wouldn't have been that shade of red I only saw when she was utterly incensed.

Was I bothered? Yes. I thought I had shown I was mature enough for this to her and everyone else, but I guess not. Had I not done a good job as of late? I hadn't said to the press that she was my child, I just said what her name was. I couldn't help it if she was a hard-headed as me.

Now that I was thinking about it, she had way too many of my traits for it to be healthy.

Pepper backed off a little and calmed down enough to breathe in a regular pattern. I was still staring at her through my sunglasses and waiting for the next outburst.

"I've gotten better-" I couldn't stand the awkward silence.

"Yes, you've gotten better, but it's not enough."

Another silence. Maybe talking about something else would make this a little easier. It was a long way home.

"What did he say?" I asked quietly. Pepper wasted no time reaching into her leather case and handing me a stack of paper she fished from inside.

The front was the usual name, age, date, height stuff. On the bottom and the back were comments and observations. I speed-read it, picking up certain words as I went along.

"High creativity, problem-solving, comfortable independence… hard-headed streak?"

"I think she get's that from her father." She was already back to her blackberry. I guess it was soothing to type emails as fast as lightning for her.

"It could say 'textbook narcissism'."

"Wait until she's 13."

"I look forward to it." Back to the paper, looking for anything else of merit. Most of it was commenting on her speech style and her small amount of English. But there was something else that bothered me.

"Not ready for kindergarden?" the words were like vomit and just as disgusting to taste.

"He said she has severe attachment issues. We knew that the first day she came to us. She cried for hours because she'd never been away from her grandmother. If we hadn't played to her curiosity and found something else for her to think about, she could have cried for days."

"She could go to kindergarden! If they keep her interested she wouldn't cry the whole time. Can we get another guy to look at her? I mean this is bull-"

"We have a doctor's appointment with a children's psych next week. She will come to the house, though. It's best to see children in their normal environment." She still wasn't looking at me. God the woman could multitask. I always forgot how good she was at that, and it made me remember easier times when I used to comment about her legs and she'd just not pay attention to it. Times where we kept our feelings to ourselves.

"So if that doctor says she's ready-"

"We'll talk about it, Tony."

I realized then that the tone she was taking with me was one of a mother trying to calm a hyper kid that wanted something. I guess I really hadn't grown up enough to be a complete parent.

But why would I grow up completely when we seemed to be doing just fine? She still came home with me, and she still slept in my bed. Sure, we hadn't had sex for days, but it's hard to do anything fun when you have a 5 year old that could come in the room at any moment in the night. It wasn't like we had a babysitter on speed dial. The only person qualified was busy being dragged around by Fuhrer Fury and unavailable. Rhodey was as uncomfortable as you could get around kids. It wasn't that he didn't like them; he just didn't know what to do with them.

I looked over the paper one last time for anything I had missed. He commented about her belief that everything was hers, and that she could have problems with other children in the classroom. There was some comment about needing to socialize her with other children to help foster good communication skills, and that she was very particular about everything and everyone.

One of the last things was she had talked about wanting to know where her mother was. Not Pepper, her mother that gave birth to her and raised her from infancy. As far as I had been around her, she hadn't asked me about her. Wouldn't make sense to ask your father about that? But she never poised the question as far as I knew. Jarvis always translated for me in my ear.

After some quiet time and my thoughts centered on listening to the little girl's breath on my ear, Happy pulled down the border between himself and us. I guess we had been sitting there long enough to make it back to the house.

"Hey, uh…there's a few people waiting for you."

Both Pepper and I looked out the hole we had to the windshield and saw a mass of reporters, cameras and video cameras standing at the gate to the compound. I'm sure they were looking for a glimpse of Emily and myself to say that we were indeed father and daughter. They weren't going to get one, though. That was something else we had to deal with once we got inside.

"What happened in there?" Happy asked as he maneuvered around the people as they banged themselves up against the darkened glass to sneak a peek inside.

"Well, uh-"

"Tony showed the world Emily." Pepper said it so blunt and cold. How pissed was she that I didn't keep her down in the podium for a minute. Or had just given her back to Natasha? What did she want me to do? Another fight we would have later.

"Oh. Make sense then." He turned just enough to get ourselves in the gate so they could snap shut quickly. We would probably drag a few stragglers, but they would be shown out accordingly.

"Take us into the garage." What could this woman not do? Bark orders, type, probably balance my check book all at the same time.

God I love her.

When I reached out to touch her, though, she moved back from my touch. My heart sank. I felt like breaking in two. She didn't want me to touch her. Did it have to do with our current quarrel over Em? Was she unhappy about something else too? Or was it just everything on top of everything on top of everything?

"Pepper-"

"Not now, Tony. I'm trying to put out _another_ fire you created and don't seem too worried about, all while you're whining that you can't get your way. Not interested."

Happy did as instructed, and we all clamored out in the garage to a waiting Dummy and my comforting smell of grease and metal parts. Pepper was too busy with other things to stay for a moment, and immediately walked out of the shop and up the stairs to the living room. Okay, if that's what she needs, then that's what she needs. I sent Happy home for the day and wandered over to the elevator with a gleeful Dummy in tow. He had some kind of infactuation with little miss Stark, and I never understood why, but it was cute to see him follow her around. I guess he just wanted to help.

The elevator zoomed up to the top floor and opened to the hallway of bedrooms. I walked into her own and laid her down into her bed while Dummy pulled the blankets up over her. She didn't seem bothered at all by the shift from hard, warm shoulder to cold sheets, thankfully. With a small kiss, Dummy and I wandered out of the purple paradise and he shut the door behind us.

"Go back downstairs. You can play with her when she wakes up." I was too busy trying to get my cufflinks off as he nodded and rolled off to the elevator to go back and do his chores.

Back into my bedroom I went to dress down and get this tie off of me. Everything came crashing down at once. The press knew, Pepper was pissed, and Emily was being denied schooling. Such a great day. How could this get-

"A call from Mr. Fury for you, sir."

Why did I open my big damn mouth.

"Fine, whatever, patch."

"Mr. Stark, I see you're doing well in your new parenting role. Maybe we should call you Iron Daddy."

"Can it Fury, what do you want." I finally got that damn tie undone and I was halfway down my buttons by now.

"Unless you're too busy watching Dora and kissing boo-boos, I need someone to clean up some things in Syria, and quick. You can get there the fastest."

I did NOT want to be taking a mission right now. I had no right to leave an angry Pepper and a sleeping Emily here alone. Had Pepper ever been left alone with her? How do I say 'oh, yeah, baby, I have to go to work, will you watch the kid you think I shouldn't have? Thanks, love you.'

"Time's wasting, Tony. More and more lives are at stake."

"Fine, give me a few minutes. Jarvis." I yelled for the cut off and yanked the rest of my clothing off. God, what a dick that man could be. Nothing like a little guilt trip to make a man do something you want him to, Jesus Christ.

I pulled on one of my extra suit liners and walked the two steps down the hall to peek in at Emily. She was curled up and drooling a little on her little pillow. Her curly black hair was everywhere. How could I leave her? I didn't know when I would be coming back.

I knew this day would come, but I didn't know how soon it would be.

The harder part was downstairs, probably sitting on the couch-

I shut the door to her bedroom and asked.

"Jarvis, where's Pepper?"

"In her old office, sir."

Go tell her, or cowards way…

"Jarvis, tell her I've been called away on a very important mission by Fury. Or, wait-"

"If I may, sir, you should tell her yourself."

Why was my computer telling me what to do again?

I begrudgingly wandered over to the other side of the house and stuck my head in the door to her old office. It hadn't changed since she used it sometimes, like now, to do things she needed to do but didn't want to go back in.

"Uh, hi, honey, uhm, I gotta…"

"What, Tony." She didn't even look up from her laptop screen. Her eyes were furrowed and she looked ready to break something. Sounds normal. Nothing like a PR nightmare to make Pepper break equipment.

"Fury called, and I gotta go." Might as well rip the bandaid quick.

That changed her demeanor some. She did look up at me and took in my black suit covering everything but my head. Something about me taking a mission always triggered the frightened side of her, and I could always see it in her eyes.

"Will you…watch Emily? I'll be back - sometime, I'll call."

"Okay, just…be careful, please?" She was begging me almost. I saw the tears that wanted to form. I wanted to hold her and tell her I would be okay, but I wasn't sure if she even wanted that now. I gave her my little grin before walking off and down the stairs to my robots in waiting.

A few minutes later, when I was up in the air, I got a phone call from the house.

"Tony, I'm sorry…I love you, we'll talk when you get back."

"Love you too, Pepper…see you when I get home."

At least I wouldn't be going home to an angry Pepper.


	11. Chapter 11

_AN – and, for the first time in this story – a Pepper-view! I know a number of you said she was pretty cold to Emily, and you saw the beginning of why in the chapter before this. Here's the chapter you also asked for – when she thaws.  
Btw – thanks to the always wonderful saichick for keeping my poor college-beaten mind in line – you can't deny children the ability to go to school. You can be told they aren't ready, but they can't deny them schooling. Will I fix it someday? …probably. When I get time.  
__**THIS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IS THE ELONGATED VERSION.**__  
Or really, it's the finished chapter. Is it truly finished? No, I cut out a decent amount of the interesting scenes. This was more of a mental Pepper-view than a physical Pepper view. That and I just want to have a happy family together in the next chapter =)_

Chapter 11  
No Other Choice

It was never a good idea to leave him thinking I was angry at him when he left. If he thought I was mad, he wouldn't pay attention to himself. The last thing I needed was to have a non-english speaking5 year old and a wounded 5 year old.

Alright, alright, I get that I'm being quite mean to Tony's maturity. But it's true – after spending over a decade on the man's beck and call, he's more like a child than anything else. When he asked me if I would move in when he learned about Emily, my blood boiled. He made me CEO so he could go off and die originally, but now it was just so he could play. Sure, I was better at it than him in some respects, but he was taking his role as stay-at-home dad a little too lightly. I knew that when I came home and Emily had a big bandage on her foot.

Now that he was off somewhere being the hero, I was all alone in a big house with her. I'd never been alone with her long enough for much, usually for Tony to go shower or get dinner or something. We hadn't been out in a month. The world stops for Emily like the world stopped for Iron Man.

Did I cave and move in? Yes, I did. He wasn't going to leave it alone. I half-expected to go home to my townhouse one day and find out that all my stuff had been taken out and moved already. I just cut out the middleman. The only thing it really changed was where I slept at night. I was here every day just about anyway. It changed where my closet was, but my house hadn't felt like home for years.

Since I left work early, I had wandered off to my old office that was still stocked as I had left it. Natasha sometimes did work from here, but not as often as I had. I just decided to pluck the laptop for a while and get through some memos and emails while I could.

With laptop in tow, I wandered in the kitchen to brew some tea, then up the stairs to change out of my suit. As good as I looked in them and as skinny as they made me feel, I didn't want to sit in it all day. One of Tony's less greasy t-shirts and a pair of pajama pants were a little more comfortable.

After changing, I peeked into Emily's room. I knew she had to be super tired if I was able to yell at Tony like that and she didn't even wake up. She would be out for a little while, then I'd cook some dinner and maybe watch some TV before it would be back to bed for her. Pretty simple. I'd babysat before, and it was a similar idea. I didn't know when Tony would be back though. I hadn't thought – what if he didn't come back for days? What would I do with Emily tomorrow? I could take her to work with me, but with the press all around it was going to be hard enough.

She looked so peaceful with her mouth open, drool already running down her cheek. She looked like Tony when she slept. I could see it in the curl of her open lip and how her nose wiggled when she breathed out. She really was his child in so many ways.

I closed the door behind myself and wandered back down the living room to set up my make-shift office for the time being. I knew I had to have hundreds of e-mails dealing with the day's unveiling of a little girl with black curls… I was smart enough to NOT check my blackberry for a while afterwards.

After a good cup of tea and a few hundred emails sorted and ridded from the world, Jarvis pinged through the Enya to inform me Emily was waking up. I expected her to be out longer, but it didn't matter either way. When she wanted to, she would come find me and we would see how the rest of the day would go.

A few minutes later, a half asleep little girl, dragging an orange cat behind her, walked down the stairs and crawled up on the couch next to me. I knew she wasn't fully awake because she hadn't asked where Tony was. I pulled her in close with one arm and she yawned into my t-shirt.

She and Tony had become what one would expect from father and daughter. He was smitten, and she apparently didn't do well being away from him for long. I wondered how long it would take until she realized he had left her here. The other side of that would be what would she do when she realized it?

"Where…papa?" She breathed out hazily. She was cute. I could feel her fighting against returning to sleep against me. I didn't mind, as long as she didn't drool on me like she drooled on her pillows.

"He had to go work. He'll be back, and I'll be here." I tried to quiet her. I noticed how uncomfortable I felt to be alone with her. I never really had been other when she was asleep. Never had I had to amuse her somehow and keep her from being upset.

I wondered what Natalie had to deal with when we left the Stark princess with her for only a few minutes. To think she broke away from her – that's frightening. Even without living the majority of her life with her father, she very apparently gained his personality. She got what she wanted in her head. Maybe it was because we were spoiling her to the point that she had learned that we would do whatever it was that she decided she wanted to do. She couldn't have lived this life in Russia. Her mother had other plans, and her grandmother was ill. They didn't seem to have lots of money – but the picture we had seen she looked so happy. Was that only one instance? Had she hidden herself, even at such a young age, behind a mask because she was forced to under her circumstances?

She made a whining noise after what I said, and Jarvis quietly translated shortly after. I'm sure she understood what I said about him not being there. I knew I couldn't tell her when he would be back. I was waiting for her to ask that question, and I knew she would.

"He'll be back when he's done."

"When?" Her knowledge of the language was getting much better, but her grasp of things we said wasn't great. It was still much of an improvement.

"Jarvis-" As soon as I said his name, Jarvis started speaking in Russian to the girl. I knew absolutely nothing, but I knew Jarvis would tell her he would return when he was finished, be it hours or days.

It took all of those few seconds he was speaking for the girl to start crying again. At least she wasn't wailing again, but crying in any way wasn't good. I moved her from my side to my lap to try to comfort her, but even in my arms she didn't seem to want to stop crying.

"Jarvis, will you please tell Tony to call when he's done? So we can get some peace of mind when possible?"

"Yes, Miss Potts. One moment."

She mumbled things I didn't understand through her tears – but what to do? What could make her happier than Tony walking up those stairs and calling out to her in that butter-y voice he had. Both of us wanted him back, but I knew I couldn't cry over it. That wouldn't get us anywhere fast. It would just be two girls crying because they man they loved was gone – even if it was a different kind of love.

And therefore a different part of his heart.

Emily would always be his child, and in his mind, but I knew I held that certain spot, otherwise I wouldn't still be around and he would have been with even more women over the past few months. We occupied his time in different places. Holding her close meant a little more. For the man that only cared about me to care so deeply for someone he had only met a month before meant something. That he cared so deeply – even though he didn't raise her…

Is it not customary that I care so as well?

I signed that paper – she was my daughter too. We were in this together, and I was the one that caused my own downfall. Tony didn't intend to dump her on someone and continue on being reckless – I had seen that now. He just wanted help. He'd never been around kids, never understood what to do with them. Now he knew. Now he was a father, and a good one at that. In this whole time, the only real accident he had had with her was when he left her to play with a wrench downstairs. That wasn't bad for a first time father with little knowledge. She hadn't had to go to the hospital yet. Part of that may have been Jarvis' watch, but I didn't want to pry.

"Miss Potts, Mister Stark would call, but he thinks that would be unwise in the current situation. He says he is most willing to call when he is returning, and he suggested that you take Emily somewhere."

Take her somewhere? She hadn't even been outside other than today before…but maybe it would be better if we got out of the house. Where would we go? The press was already having a field day.

An idea came to me all of a sudden. What kid doesn't like ice cream? Especially with this summer heat, and after her long trying day. Why not go get some ice cream and take her down to the private beach? Wouldn't that be something to make her forget her gone papa?

"Emily…" I spoke to her softly, trying to get her attention. Her puppy brown eyes broke my heart, but I knew I could somehow make them better.

She seemed confused for a moment as I whisked her up and downstairs we went to climb into one of the many selections of cars to choose from. She did perk up when we started walking down, I guess expecting to see Tony sitting at one of his tables down there, but it was dark, quiet, and empty. She whined some more, tears slowing probably from her lack of energy, but I could fix that. We climbed into my Audi, which had a booster seat for her that Tony had long since put in, and off we went.

She was quite perturbed. Having only been out of the house today, she was quiet and very curious about where we were going. At least for the first few minutes.

Then I couldn't get her to stop talking.

She was interspersing English and Russian in her speech, and I heard her say something about a bird. She probably saw a seagull fly beside us and had to comment on it.

She was definitely Tony's child.

We stopped at a small ice cream stand I knew was down on the beach. For it being as hot as it was, there weren't very many people around. It was mid afternoon and the tide was probably low – so the boy at the stand was more than willing for some sort of business. We both got small scoops of vanilla, and Emily wandered back to the car with no qualms whatsoever and no more crying. Her face still had that cute red puffiness, but the tears had long subsided. She apparently had no idea what ice cream was, which made sense when I thought about where she had come from. She was more interested in poking it at first before I showed her to lick it. Then she had a field day.

After one messy car ride and getting melted ice cream all over my leather (which Tony would be paying to be cleaned) later, we were changed and down at the beach within minutes. I decided I wasn't going to get in the water much – but Emily would be welcome to wander as she pleased. It would be a great way to clean her up too.

She did the funniest things. First, she had to determine what sand was, and told me all about it. She picked pieces from her palm and stared at them rather intently, but was quick to change to dancing around in the crashing waves. She talked the entire time. I didn't know a word she said, but she brought me shells from time to time and squealed at the crab skittering around her feet.

Was this bright glow inside the feeling of having a child? The sheer joy of seeing her so happy made me want to cry, and I didn't know how to respond. She wasn't mine – she didn't come from my uterus, I hadn't carried her for months and hadn't changed her diapers, but she warmed me from the inside a way the sun could not.

It was a bit of an afternoon ordeal. We ordered pizza, watched The Little Mermaid, and she was out like a light in my lap by 9:30. I didn't even care that she was drooling on me as I saw the final scene and let loose a small tear for the nostalgia of it all. And after seeing a basic afternoon though the eyes of a 5 year old girl, everything was different. My world changed. Emily meant more than someone else I had to worry about. She was a happy little 5 year old that had so much of her father in her genes. I already felt bad for her mother and grandmother having had to raise her for so long. After 'raising' Tony for a decade, we could have traded great information.

I, and her now drooling on my shoulder, wandered up the stairs to the master bedroom to lie down for the night at 10:15. There was no reason to lay her in her own bed when she was going to come to me anyway. We had the lights out and the alarms set for the next morning by 10:40, and I had my new little heater to keep me warm all night.

What I hadn't expected was the warmth on my back when I woke up late the next morning. Or the drool on both sides of my favorite shirt.

Like father, like daughter.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

AN – Did I like that? No. I really didn't. But I want to get somewhere. I have plans, ideas! TIME SKIPS!


	12. Chapter 12

AN – Alright! I want to get to the cute stuff already, where they're a happy family. I have a great plan for an ending conflict.  
Yo Gabba Gabba is hilarious. Particularly Biz Markie doing beat boxing.  
If you want to listen to the classical piece I did while writing this, or at least the second part, it is Expression by Helen Jane Long. It's GORGEOUS. Enjoy. =)

Chapter 12  
The Kids Are Alright  
Or, Expression

"Is my tie alright? I mean, does it go with all of this-"

"Tony, you look fine. It's the same color, it's fine. You're both fine. We're all fine." Pepper was touching up spots from my last foray in the suit while Emily was most interested in her Gabby Gabby show. Green rooms were never green, they were just…rooms. Rooms to get touched up in. Rooms to fuss over clothing.

"Don't you need to go for make-up, Pep?"

"Yes, I do, but I'll be fine. I put enough on this morning…"

"OW, that one's still open."

"Papa-purple!"

"Yep, you're wearing purple."

"NO. Purple!" She was pointing to the screen, where the background behind the hopping kids was purple. At least she was learning. And now, with that tutor to help her learn more English, she was doing alarmingly well. Like, picking up on things I didn't think she would be able to. She pointed at my chest and said arc last week. It was surreal.

The world knew about her existence in a hushed sense now. A month had passed since she ran in on our press conference, and since I started my other job again. Pepper seemed happier to come home at night, and wanted to play with Emily before bed. I guess while I was gone that night, something changed. Whatever it had been, I know I didn't mind.

"Come on principessa." Up in my arms she went and out the room we go – to another room with a white screen, ten bright lights, and a camera man waiting for us. The interview was done, now the photos were the last part.

The photographers only asked for one thing – that we dressed alike.

So she was in a lavender dress, and I was wearing my favorite royal purple dress shirt and white tie. Even Pepper wore a purple blouse. We were a family. A creepy middle-class soccer family.

At least that's how I felt about it. Having never been in something like that, it was creepy to me. I saw these pictures all the time on people's desks at work, and they always made me want to throw up at how cute they were. Now I understood why they did it. It was, I guess, a sense of bonding. A togetherness. Whatever it was, it was pretty damn cutesy and I wanted to go home, but this was the last part.

"Miss Potts, Mister Stark, sit down on those pillows in the middle…one of you hold Emily…look at me, that's great – alright, first take!" And the blinding lights I always hated made me see circles of light for days.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"_Meet Emily Stark, the Iron Man's daughter from a one night stand with recently deceased Russian Model __Ilya Lyubochka__. Tony took custody when Ilya passed away and her mother put out the suit claiming the child to be his, and that's how the story goes. Do we have an Iron Girl on our hands? The pictures show…"_

"Wow this reporter is terrible. But the pictures look good. Really like the one they chose for the front." Nothing like Sundays. Not much to do, not much anyone can make me do in particular. Pepper, on the other hand, was a little more interested in something on her laptop, and Emily was back playing with dolls while singing something to herself. A normal Sunday morning + me in pajama pants sucking down my second cup of Columbian. I knew there was a reason I had this stuff shipped for an ungodly amount…

I scratched at the edge of the reactor before leaning over to sneak a peek at Pepper's laptop. She was on some sort of forum it looked like-

"What are you reading?"

"Oh, just the comments on our story in People. One woman thinks I'm a completely changed man from my old ways, and says she's proud of what I have become. Another thinks that the real me has long since been kidnapped and I'm really just a robot now trying to cover myself with the press.

"I could be a robot, Pepper. You wouldn't even know."

"Sure, because you wouldn't be cold or make weird noises when you move or not eat or anything like that."

"Fine, fine. Hey, did we get any of those pictures sent to us?"

"Nope, they said we could have prints made later if we wanted. Do you want to?"

"Oh yeah. I'm going to need one for my desk downstairs…go right next to my parents." I took a long sip of my coffee, kind of quietly inching away. It was odd to think of myself as a father like my father was my father. But I wasn't like him. I was around. I loved Emily. I didn't blow her off and not tell her about it. Well, she is 5. He probably didn't blow me off when I was 5 either.

Down went my coffee cup on the table, and down went me – crawling over to my very amused daughter and her box of Barbies and clothing for them. She was busy dressing and undressing them while having a very significant conversation to herself about something.

"What are you doing, Em?"

She kept on mumbling on about something. I did notice one Barbie though – a Ken doll, with dark hair. The hair looked thoroughly messed, but there was something black on his face. I tried to rub it off with my finger, but realized it wasn't coming off. It was sharpie all over his chin and cheeks, and there was a blue smudge on his chest too. Wait a minute.

"Emily…is this me?"

I turned the doll to her and looked at her with a funny angry look, and she looked from the doll to me, then pointed and let off a stream of half Russian half English words. I heard Papa, arc, and beard. Hell, I didn't know she knew beard.

Then she fervently started digging for something in the box. Hopefully some clothes for said Me Barbie because I was a little naked and cold, if you know what I mean. Instead, she pulled out a redheaded Barbie that was half clothed in a black skirt and falling off white shirt, which then she prattled on about Mama and put some black shoes on the Barbie.

I did think it was somewhat funny that I was nude and Pepper at least had clothing on. What did that say about her thoughts on me, I wondered. The child's psych said even the smallest details mean something to her. Then, as she went on her tirade, she started making kissy noises and pushing the two dolls together. Okay, so…

"Jarvis, if you would, please."

"Little Miss Stark is going on about her mother and father in love, and as well how they do not fight. And that father stays at home with her."

Definitely an improvement from playing mean model.

I started digging around in the box once she had started grabbing at something else on the floor, I guessed looking for Pepper-Barbie's second shoe. If we bought a Ken doll, it meant there had to be some sort of clothing for me. As much as real me enjoyed the nude, I was a little done with the naked Barbie-fest.

"Here." Pepper was holding a piece of fabric so tiny – it seemed to be made out of a specific material…and when I looked at it in my hand, I realized what it was.

I pulled the tiny wife beater on the Tony-Ken doll and the blue dot was just in the right place. It had little black spots on it even.

"We made Barbie clothes while you were on your last mission. I made it out of one of your old shirts." Pepper was now sitting behind and between the two of us, holding out a little plastic shoe to Emily who took it with a very enthusiastic and accented thank you. Pepper also handed me a pair of black pants to go with my dirty tank top, and my doll version finally looked right. Well, other than the 5-year-old version of my goatee.

Pepper asked if she could have her Barbie, and she fixed the little blouse. We locked eyes, and for a moment I wanted nothing more than to dart out and kiss her as hard as I ever could, to show her how much I loved all of this. A quiet Sunday morning, playing with Barbie dolls. 3 years ago I would have said you were crazy to think I would be doing this instead of working through a massive hangover while hiding away in my workshop so I wouldn't have to deal with the still sleeping model in my bedroom.

The quiet moment was dashed by a very loud Emily making sound effects as she poked her small arm in between us with a little girl doll that was dark headed and dressed in a blue dress.

"Look, look – family!" Emily cried, giggling. I thought about crying for a moment, but Emily caught my attention. She took Pepper and I's dolls from us and configured them together, arms out, with a little Emily doll in the middle. It was made to look like Pepper and I were hugging Emily between us.

"See?" She held up the mass of arms and plastic for both of us to see and giggled more, her mouth going on a mile a minute. I scooped her up into my arms and tickled her some, making her squeal louder, while Pepper moved closer and laid her head on my shoulder. I reached out for her, and she reached out for me, and we wrapped ourselves around our daughter just like the dolls she was still holding did. It was nothing more than a quiet simple moment of love. That Emily decided was too long.

"Breakfast?"

…definitely, definitely my child.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

AN - WOOOO. Fluffy cute stuff. Had to get that out of the way. And yes, I had a Barbie doll that I made my father when I was like, 7. He was the Prince from The Little Mermaid, and my mother was the Ariel doll (would make sense if you saw my parents – he's black headed, my mother is a VERY fiery redhead) and I colored his beard and everything. My mom still has them. I'm 20 years old and they're still in my closet at home.  
**ATTENTION ALL PEOPLE WITH SOME SORT OF ARTISTIC ABILITY** – I would LOVE a drawing of the picture they put on the cover of People. I have the idea right in mind, but I didn't write it down here. I'll do something for it – I just have no art skill and would love drawings. =)


	13. Chapter 13

AN – I thought I would clear this point up for some of you –  
My Pepper chapter – I didn't like it because of how quickly I just dumped the end out and said here's what happens. That's what had me so caught before – why I didn't finish the chapter originally. I knew what I wanted to happen, but didn't have the mindset to write it. I wanted to find a way to get it to you, and for it to make sense so I could go on and do the cute stuff like the last chapter!  
This chapter has a new viewpoint for you =)

No one has come forward with drawing skill! I guess I'll have to go troll DA.

Chapter 13  
The Storm Rumbles

"Fast!"

"What, you want faster?" I yelled over the roar of the wind in the convertible. It was a little later in the morning, so there wasn't really any traffic – so going 150 in the Audi was no big deal. And it made Emily giggle.

"FAST!" she yelled at me, hopping in the side seat in excitement.

With no hesitation, I popped it into last gear manually. Sure, the car did have a design in it where I could shift it with my thumb by push of a button – but that wasn't how cars were made to be. You pop the clutch, you yank the shifter, you jolt. That's how it works.

The car bucked like it stopped mid run, then jolted forward like a rocket blasting off. I felt like that kid again, running around in the race cars my father had been building. I got to sit in them sometimes. It was the closest thing I could get to flying at the time.

And I knew that had to be what Emily was feeling in that moment. And I loved it completely.

Her headmistress and Pepper did not enjoy our falderals, our father/daughter bonding. Me rocketing into the private school drive with screeching tires was always well received (not). Especially since the headmistress liked to yammer on with the parents when they dropped off their children. She and I had a great relationship.

"Mister Stark, you can be reckless with your own body all you please, but endangering your _child_ like that-"

"Thank you for your input, Miss Curmudgeon."

"It's Crumger, Mister Stark!"

"Good morning to you too!"

I walked her in. Every morning that I got to drop her off I always walked to her to her classroom. I liked talking to her one-on-one teacher about how she was doing, and seeing her classroom that she never could stop talking about. We had been together since May, and it was now September. We found her a school with optimal security and that would use a one-on-one tutor with her to get her to speed. As much as I was paying these people, I should have my name on the drive. I parked there every time to piss off the crazed rich soccer moms anyway. They complained, I laughed. Whatever.

"Good Morning Miss Pakanich." I said as I opened the door. She was drawing something on the white board as Emily wandered on in to her desk and dropped her Iron Man backpack on it. She decided she wanted it even without me saying something – like father light daughter.

"Good morning Emily. Good morning Mister Stark." She was a sweet young woman, probably 25-ish. She had been raised in Latvia, spoke Russian fluently, and specifically did ESL. She was also quite attractive. Once she stopped by Emily to say something to her, she walked over to me in the doorway.

"Happy will be here to get her this afternoon. I have a meeting I have to attend to." It was always a matter of security for her. Even at school there were people trying to take pictures of her playing. Someone always brought her in, someone always walked her out. With me being her father and all, the possibility of something bad happening was way too high for my liking. Pepper thought of the school for it's catering to a number of different diplomats and whatnot – so the security would be good, and apparently the academics were too.

"Alright." She nodded and smiled before walking over to do something else, and I wandered over to the small desk Emily was busying splaying things all over.

"Principessa – I'll see you tonight, alright? Try to be good."

"Have a good day, papa!" It was still adorable that Miss Pakanich taught her that. It still choked me up. Sure, it was a little accented, but she was getting better. She knew how to put words together into sentences now. It was worth the amount of money to see her getting better. It made me feel at peace that she liked her teacher and the school was doing well to take care of her too.

I kissed her forehead then out the doors of the building I swaggered to see the plump, angry headmistress standing by my car.

"Mister Stark-"

"Oh, thanks, did anyone touch it? I have this thing about people getting near my car, you know, fingerprints, keys, whatever." I climbed in a revved the car once it started to make sure I didn't hear her complaint about me parking in the middle of the drop-off drive. I really didn't care. Maybe I'd have someone come paint my name on the concrete edge later.

I knew that bitch hated me. As long as she didn't take it out on my child, I didn't care, but it was fun to rile her up whenever I did get the chance to bring Emily to school.

I actually had to go into the office today for some weird reason. Someone from another company's R+D wanted to talk to me about some new engineering concept they had – for some reason, that involved me, but whatever. Meant I could make some men with doctorate degrees look really stupid.

I made sure to burn rubber right next to her grumpy face and was off within seconds back down the PCH.

The meeting was terrible. I felt like I was babysitting idiot newborns and having to teach them the simplest things. I kept thinking I would rather talk to my 5 year old who's learning English than these bastards, but Pepper sat next to me all the way through it. She kept trying to calm me down, but there was only so much she could do.

She couldn't stop the phone call though. Jarvis had plans for a new mission. And it was fairly close, in northern Mexico. I hadn't been to Mexico much – just to break up some giant drug fights where cartels were killing civilians. I wondered what this one was about.

And I got out of that god awful meeting.

It was only 1:30, and Emily would be out of school soon. Could I wait 30 minutes until I left? Would it be that big of an issue? Time was lives, I had to remind myself. Just because I have a child doesn't mean I can let others die for my selfishness. That had already happened for so many years.

I was suited and roaring through the sky 15 minutes after I got home. This was going to be a mission I would finish in time for dinner.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The bell! I can go home! Happy is coming to get me, cause Papa is working, and Mama always works. According to Papa, she even works when she's sleeping. I don't know. She's quiet when she's sleeping.

Miss Pakanich leads me out to the big black car that Happy drives. He takes me home when Papa is busy. He's a nice man. He gets me ice cream!

I tell Happy about my day, but I know he doesn't understand all of what I say. Miss Pakanich says soon I'll be able to talk to everyone and everyone will understand me, and I'll understand everyone. I can't wait for that day.

We drive along the ocean, and I love looking out at the blue. I never saw water in Russia. Everything was either green or white. Mama used to say the blue made the green, and the grey made the white. I didn't know what she meant. I don't think about it.

Happy tells me that Papa is gone on a mission again in the big red suit. It makes me stare at my backpack with him on it. I think it's pretty, but I want to touch it. It looks so shiny. What does it feel like to have on? Maybe Papa will let me see when he comes back. I wish he would. I want to ask Mama about it when she comes home.

There's a loud noise – and another, and another. Happy is unhappy, and the car is moving more than just going home. I look out the window to see what it is, but the window breaks and I scream. Someone's grabbing me. I scream louder and try to get away, but I don't. The hand hurts my arms. There's another loud noise, and Happy yells. There's something over my head, and lots of shouting. I'm crying, but no one is listening to me. My head starts hurting, and then I'm not crying anymore. Something's cold beneath me. Where am I? I want Papa…

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Drug cartels are idiots. Really. I don't know why I got called down for this. I mean, it's a simple bang-up job. It's 100 men with big guns threatening to shoot women and children if they don't get their drug money on time. Was it really necessary for me to show up? No, not really. They scream and run when I land, and everything ends in minutes. Some of them shoot, most cower and hide. The women cry and praise me. Why isn't every job this easy?

Once I see fit to leave, I look around once more to make sure everything is covered. Someone throws something at me from behind, but when I turn around, there's nothing there. Not even a rock.

"Sir, I'm receiving a distress call from Miss Potts. She's asking that you return home immediately-"

Mid-sentence, Jarvis cuts off. My helmet goes black. For a brief second, my chest feels off, but it goes away momentarily.

"Jarvis?" I called and called. It didn't seem too bad outside for me to take my helmet off. What would have caused that? A helmet black out? ...The armor was heavier. The parts weren't moving like normal. Jarvis controls most of the significant movement – he helps make it move more like a light exo-skeleton than a titanium suit. Something had just gone wrong in the wiring. I didn't even do much, I couldn't have blown something so easily-

I never noticed the giant rock thrown at my uncovered head that had me down and bleeding in seconds. My vision was blurred, and my head was absolutely killing me, but as I tried to get up out of the dirt, something else hit me in the neck and I was gone in the darkness.

All I could think about was what was wrong at home…that made Pepper call me…

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

AN- SO! How odd of an ending! =D …yeah, I had to figure out a way to get the man to get in trouble and caught in his suit. Made the most sense in my head…I still hate it, but it moves us on. Is it short today? Well, yes…but I want to give you as much as possible as quickly as possible!


	14. Chapter 14

AN – AHA! I do have someone looking into photo-manip. So exciting. Can't wait to see it! And neither can anyone else, for that matter. =)  
What exactly happened last chapter? Does anyone know? Do I know? …Kind of. Yes. Maybe. Ask me tomorrow.  
I rewrote this twice, just because I wasn't completely pleased with the feel of it.

Chapter 14  
I didn't ask for this.

"Mister Stark?" I kept hearing my name. Who was calling my name? I didn't know that voice. Leave me alone, I'm tired, my head hurts…

But I didn't have that choice.

I jumped up quickly, hearing something fall near me that was metal. A dark room, a basic bedroom. I was on a bed I didn't know, with a guy I didn't know, who was looking at the suit.

The suit that wasn't on me anymore.

It was together, set against a dolly of sorts. Whoever this man in white was, he was a little too close to my property.

I moved instinctively to get up, but found my wrists chained to the bed I had been on. And so were my ankles – quite tightly too. I had bloody cuts all over them – I only then noticed the pain I had on my skin. I was shirtless, my arc not set in the cylinder, and my neoprene suit was laying against a chair nearby. I had on some sort of scrub pants in a weird dark green. Why was my arc hanging there? It felt warm on my skin, but I couldn't fix it. It just lolled lazily against my chest. I wanted to fix it. It could come out at any moment. …That meant he had been looking at it, now the suit. This guy…who the hell was he?

"Good to know you're awake. We were worried we lost you." The man spoke, but facing away from me. He was still examining my property. He seemed too interested in trying to lift pieces to peek underneath.

"Look buddy-"

"Ah ah, please, Mr. Stark…I'm only observing the changes you made. The Mark I is very primitive in comparison…"

"…excuse me?" I was trying to take in where I was. It was a small room, like I thought, bedroom style. A dresser, a bed, and a lamp. But there wasn't much else in the room. Though there was a whole lot more I couldn't see that seemed to be bathed in darkness. Something definitely wasn't right. The room didn't smell right. The guy didn't smell right. And my head was killing me…probably that rock that hit me. Was I bleeding still? I didn't feel any dried blood on my back. They probably cleaned me up. What use was Tony Stark with a head injury?

"The suit Obadiah had was a behemoth, unnecessarily large. Why waste the resources in size when it's not necessary…"

"Where the fuck am I." Come on, get right to the point.

"That shouldn't be your main concern. I'd be more interested in how I could get out, if I was in your place."

I already hated this guy. Not only because paid someone to hit me in the head with a rock (…seriously?) but now he had his hands all over my suit. Now I know why my hands were so bloodied. It hurt terribly to pull against that metal, but what else could I do?

"I have a proposition for you, Mr. Stark."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Where was he? Jarvis said something went wrong. The suit wasn't reacting, Emily was gone, and Happy was in the hospital. The brand new Bentley was destroyed and down in the surf along the PCH. I couldn't handle this. Both of them, in the same day.

Jarvis said that he was in the middle of telling Tony that Emily had disappeared when the suit went offline. Something was wrong. This was too well done. At the exact same time.

"Rhodey?"

"Yeah, Pep? …you sound terrible…"

"Tony…he…and Emily!...oh, Rhodey…"

"I'm on my way, Pepper. Breathe, keep calm."

"_Early this afternoon, the car of Tony Stark, holding his young daughter and driver, was run off of the Pacific Coastal Highway. The driver is in critical condition, but the daughter's whereabouts are unknown at the time. Stark Industries has not put out an official word…"_

It was already all over the news. The police were around, keeping the press from the premises. I didn't have much to tell them. Did Tony have enemies? Way too many for words. Most I don't even know. I couldn't be alone. Only myself and SHIELD knew that something was wrong with Tony in Mexico. Fury had someone going down to where he was to see if he could find anything. A body, a suit, something. Anything was better than what I had. Which was a friend in the hospital and two missing people.

One of which was 5 years old.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Look, I'm not exactly…that way, and I'm kind of in a relationship, so it would get weird quick-"

The man just laughed at me. He finally turned around and walked towards me strapped to my bed. He was tall, built, and had an interesting face – thick jaw, but deep inset eyes and an unnecessarily large nose. There was no way I was going to be able to take this guy seriously. He looked like a caricature of evil. It was too funny for me not to laugh at, and right in his face too.

Which he silenced by punching me right on the left cheek. That came at a bit of a surprise, and it did shut me up. I was spitting blood for a little while after, and I noticed with my tongue that one of my molars was loose afterwards – something I would have to get fixed when I got back home.

"This isn't a time for jokes, Mr. Stark. I thought you would realize that."

"Yeah, sorry. After having been in a cave for 3 months when I could have died from infection, stray bullet, coal in the mouth – I'm not really taking this seriously." I shrugged as best I could. I knew I was pushing buttons. I had blood running down my chin and my hands both, but I was still cracking jokes. I got out of a cave – I could definitely get out of a more modern setting. Ten to one they wanted some sort of weapons – the suit, more than likely. If they wanted the suit, why not just shoot me and take it off of me? So that meant there was something more. Or they needed me to fix the malfunction.

The man looked down for a moment and nodded his head softly, apparently in thought. His mouth turned up slightly then he turned his eyes back to me.

"I think I can make this a little more real for you."

Two men came from the blackness and undid the cuffs on my ankles, then just unhooked the ones for my wrists from the bed and instead to each other. With a little help, I was on my feet and off the bed.

"Oh, hey, one thing, though?" I asked of the coated man. He had to be running this. But how could he really be running anything with that face-

"Yes, Mr. Stark, what can I do for you?" It was a completely joking tone. I realized I was a prisoner in all of this, but if they wanted me alive-

"Could you reset the reactor? It could fall out, get damaged, kill me-" I was halfway through my second sentence when he reached up and yanked it out of the socket. I gasped sharply, and within seconds the guards had me picked up by my arms and were running me out of the room and down the hall. I was trying to take in the scenery and what was around while trying to not feel the pain in my chest. This never got old. I never got used to the pain of going into cardiac arrest.

It took them seconds to stop and drop me down against a window, my head lolling. My breathing was short, and I was trying to catch it but I couldn't. Finally, my eyes focused, and I could see what I was supposed to.

Emily. Sitting on a rug, playing with toys, and watching Go, Diego, Go!. There was a guard sitting in front of the door, playing on his phone but occasionally looking up. She seemed happy. She wasn't being bothered. She was playing and talking to herself. She looked like she did every day she had spent down in my workshop.

But they had Emily. If they had Emily…

I couldn't keep myself up anymore, and I slid down the wall to lay on my side. Blood was seeping out of my mouth more and more, but I couldn't do anything.

"Is that better, Mr. Stark? Now do you understand?"

"Y-y-yes. Yes. YES." I was trying to use all of my strength to answer him, which is why it went from measly to yelling. I sprayed my blood on the floor as I did so, but I didn't care, and apparently neither did he.

"Good. Maybe now you'll listen when I'm talking."

Something happened after he stopped that I don't remember – all I remember is everything going black, and a little girl's voice beyond the wall.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"We know that Emily was abducted by an unmarked van and Tony's MIA. That's it. The suit's out of commission, and the homing device within it isn't working. How screwed up could this be? You would think the man would have some sort of chip implanted in him by now. Two kidnappings within 3 years?" Fury wasn't funny. He thought he was, but really he wasn't. Especially not in my current state. Natasha was even stoic faced, and here I was bawling my eyes out on my friend's shoulder.

"What do we know? What about Happy?"

"Still unconscious, sir." Natasha piped up behind him. Why was he here, again? Was it necessary for me to hear all of this? Because it wasn't like I had anything to input. Rhodey was trying to calm me down, and keep me breathing, but nothing really helped. It made sense – take Iron Man's kid, yes, get the money, sure – take both of them? For what purpose?

I had stopped crying for a moment, and Fury was staring at me. My mind was racing. Tony and Emily, both of them, why both of them, wouldn't make-

"Collateral, Miss Potts."

The one-eyed black man's voice woke me from my dream land.

"…Collateral."

"The only reason anyone would take Tony and Emily both would be collateral. Make him do something. Give something up. Give us the suit or the kid gets it. Bargaining 101. Without leverage, what use is making someone do something when they apparently have no fear of death?"

That completely made sense.

"What…what would they want him for?" After saying it, I realized how dumb of a question that really was. What had they wanted him for in Afghanistan? Weapons. Missiles. Well, now we really knew that they were supposed to kill Tony, not tell him to build something. But this was very different already.

"The suit. That thing in his chest. Weapons. Too many possibilities. I'm more interested in WHO, than WHAT at this moment. He went to Mexico and didn't come back. Jarvis lost contact AFTER the 'fight' ended. Sounds staged." He looked way too comfortable. Too comfortable for my comfort. He was used to this, I realized, but I wish he looked like he cared more. I knew he didn't care about Tony, but a little girl? Didn't that mean something to these military guys?

"Have you looked into what the mission was about?" Rhodey did pipe up. He really didn't know as much about this as I did. Hell, he was still wearing his fatigues.

"Drug cartel using hostages to get money. Cut and dry. Most of the time, Iron Man lands, the roaches scatter, game over. Same thing happened today. Except we have no Iron Man."

"…is there…is there anything I can do?" I sounded too weepy, too sad, too scared. What use am I? I'm not a weepy woman. I've never been this weak.

"Hmm…this isn't a coincidence. Stark Industries will be scared of losing it's figure head and the next generation. You have to keep the calm. We'll handle the dirty parts. You with us, Colonel?"

Rhodey nodded beside me, and I nodded too. Keep calm, carry on – I had seen that on a sign in a shop recently. It made a whole lot more sense now.

"I'll be going to Mexico this evening. Need anything? I hear tequila is cheap down there." Fury joked. He always joked. But with this dead-pan face. He was already up and out of the door with his woman secretary by the time I came back to reality.

If it was normalcy they needed, normalcy they would get. Work would keep my mind off of crying and off of the emptiness of the house now.

But I had a thought.

"Jarvis – is there any way you can track the reactor in Tony's chest?"

Rhodey looked at me like I was crazy, but he must have thought for a moment and realized how good of a question that was.

"That is possible, Miss Potts. I will make the necessary calculations."

"Thanks…" I smiled sadly. A ray of hope of sorts. It would make sense for Tony to put a chip in himself or at least in his chest piece in case something like last time happened again. Or maybe he didn't think he would ever be in that situation again. But everyone has weaknesses.

Even Iron Man.


	15. Chapter 15

AN – I don't remember who said it – I believe Aaron Cronin did – but Ben Kingsley is a perfect mental idea of the man in the white coat. Go with that.  
Please2forgive for taking so long. College has been royally kicking my ass. And I'm still behind on all my school work. I'm 5 novels deep currently (I just can't read more than two at a time, otherwise I get them mixed up) and I don't read particularly fast. With golf, school, my parents, the world coming crashing down – all I can think about is how am I going to get Tony and poor Emily out of harm's way.

Chapter 15

The sound of silence

"_After the statement given by Pepper Potts yesterday, I can't help but wonder – who would give Tony Stark, the Iron Man, a child willingly, when there were other alternatives? Reports are that she still has family-"_

I couldn't listen to that. 3 days later, and pundits are still clamoring on about Tony and Emily getting kidnapped at the same time. Yes, Tony had realized what kind of danger Emily would go through in her life. He had bottled himself up in the workshop for days once because he realized that at any time, I could be harmed to get to him. He didn't like the idea. It frightened him. He thought more about the death of his parents. Then the possibility of being alone again.

Now someone decided throwing a 5 year old in the mix was going to make everything even better.

Fury had an idea what was going on, but he wouldn't tell anyone. I had to all but sob uncontrollably to get him to tell me that. He said he would 'let me know if anything else came up'. Which meant stay out of my way.

I couldn't go to work. I was mobbed there, and even when I did get to my office I didn't want to work. I knew that when the day was over, I was going home to a completely quiet, sterile home with no laughter and no breaking of mechanical parts. Or the reverse order sometimes.

Rhodey offered for me to stay with him – just so I wasn't alone. It was a little ways off and I didn't feel right doing that. I felt like I would impose on him being a single bachelor and I knew he had to go to work at 4 in the morning some days. He didn't need to stay up coddling me.

The world needed to go on without Tony Stark. And I just wouldn't let myself do it.

It was like Afghanistan again.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

My body felt like bricks. I knew where I was when I came to enough to feel the cuts on my wrists. I was back in the same bed in that room that I guessed was my little cell.

Like Emily was in that room all to herself. That was her cell so she would be occupied and out of these men's way, but still here enough to tug at my heart.

"You gave us a bit of a scare there, Mr. Stark."

How did they know I was awake? I forced my eyes open enough to see that all the lights were on this time. The part of the room that had been dark before was lit, and – it was work benches. With my suit now in pieces all over them, and he was playing with a gauntlet. My gauntlet. His fat, grubby fingers shouldn't fit in holes built for my more slender and handsome fingers. All I could hear in my head was my mother, long ago telling me "Tony, you have to learn to share" but this was different. This wasn't something I meant to share, or needed to share.

"We didn't think you would wake up. You've been out a good amount of time."

He had his back to me. How could he see that I was awake? Or even knew to say what he did when he did? What was with this guy?

He finally did turn around and rolled over to me in his rolling chair, the sound echoing off the walls. It wasn't until he was right next to me that I noticed why my body felt like bricks.

There was no glow from my chest. The port was open, and had wires coming out of it. I followed the wires down from my bed, but I couldn't see what they were attached to.

"We couldn't have you running off with the suit at any time, so we took the liberty of hooking you up to a much more…confined connection."

"Do you think I can break handcuffs normally? Why put me on a leash when I'm already on a shorter one."

He answered my question in a very simple manner. He moved over and unlocked both of my arms from the bed, then my ankles. I was free – or, at least, as free as I was going to get in here. I rubbed my raw wrists as I maneuvered to sit on the edge of the gurney like bed and reset how the cables were hanging on my chest. I felt like I was running on half capacity and I wanted to go back to sleep, but it was only because the cables were probably hooked to something not as powerful as the reactor. I felt like I was tugging that battery along again.

"I have no problem with you free if you'll agree to my proposition."

I didn't like the sound of that, but I didn't have much of a choice. God, how could anyone take this man seriously – he just looked like he needed a good rhinoplasty –

"But, I have no problem convincing you if necessary."

"Sure, what have you got? I've got time to hear a proposal." I had to act like this was just a normal business proposition. There were too many possibilities of what 'convincing' could become. But without the cocky ass voice I normally carried. I had to remember that I was the one in the lower position here.

"My colleagues are studying your little piece from your chest…remarkable, really." He was rolling around, not even looking at me and more interested in curling his fingers around and listening to the metal around them move with the bends of his joints. The fact that he could get it on was still angering. It shouldn't have even fit him. It was mine, made for me, not anyone else-

"And Starkium. Interesting element. And to think! You synthesized a new element in your basement. I didn't know anyone could build a collider in a basement-"

"Cut to the chase. What do you want from me?"

"I want reactors. The suits we can design, but the power source is the hard part. My head scientist told Stane that, and so Stane just stole it out of your chest. What we want is your cooperation, not to kill you." He was busy pulling the gauntlet off of his hand and resetting it on the table next to the other one. He wasn't even looking at me as he talked. He didn't have to to know he was lying. He wanted my designs and my knowledge to go into his pockets instead of my own, and if he played his cards right, I would lose my ability to be Iron Man, the great protector and become Iron Man, the leader of the American Army.

He didn't have to tell me he was making suits to sell.

He rolled back to my sitting on the bed and looked me in the eyes, finally.

"I want you to teach my men how to create your miniature reactor, and in complete working condition. You do that for me, and you and your lovely daughter can go home. Very simple."

"…Okay. You just want me to make one arc reactor with your scientists, they see how it goes, they start making them, Emily and I go home. Correct?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark. That's all I'm asking. Simple, like I said."

I paused for a moment, trying to look like I was weighing my options.

The man never said it had to be in working order. Or that it hard to be to exact specifications.

"Alright. I'll need to make one here first-"

"Oh, no, that won't be necessary Mr. Stark. We'll base it off of your previously made one." He waved his hand in front of me. He must have caught on. He didn't want me to have on in my chest. The cables were on purpose. A short leash for a man already on a pretty short one.

"Alright…so when do we start?"

"Tomorrow morning should be best…I think they're still finishing work with the collider. Is there anything I can get you?" He had rolled away again to put the chair underneath one of the work benches, and instead stood to walk over to me. I slid off of my seat on the bed, learning quickly how much taller I was to this man.

"Could I see her?" I had no hesitations asking. If I was going to agree to a deal with this man, he was obligated to indulge me, even if it would have been some hookers and blow. A few minutes with my daughter shouldn't be a big thing, right?

"Sure, Mr. Stark, I think I can do that." He smiled at me, shook my hand, and walked right out of the room, guards behind him shutting and locking the door.

When I said I wanted to see her, I meant then.

Not 3 hours later.

I was tinkering with the suit with the tools I had been left (not as good as mine, but workable) when the door opened again and I was brought back to reality – that I had been taken again, and my daughter was stuck with me.

I hadn't expected a crying mass of black curls to walk in and look around.

She stared right at me, and I dropped the tool I had been using on the table. We lunged at each other at the same time.

She kept crying and calling for me while I held her and tried to calm her down. At least we were left alone together. Someone watching while I tried to comfort my daughter would make me feel horribly uncomfortable. Not that I didn't already, since I was having to comfort her for something she didn't understand.

Her small hands grabbed at my neck and shoulders while my larger ones tried desperately to calm her by rubbing her back and holding her to my naked chest. Her tears found their way to dripping down my skin, but I walked around and whispered to her enough for her to catch her breath and realize how tired those tears made her.

"Where…blue glow?" She asked after a few quiet minutes, her fingers poking at the cables coming out of my chest. I couldn't help but sad smile. What could I tell her? What would she understand? I couldn't tell her they took it from me so I couldn't run away. Without the reactor, I couldn't put on the suit and leave. I couldn't destroy all of this, all of their probably pre-made suits and find my way home.

I just smiled to her and pushed the black curl from her face to behind her ear. She was still wearing the clothes I sent her to school in that day. They weren't dirty or anything, but her hair was greasy, and she needed her face washed. They were feeding her, entertaining her and giving her a bed, but that was the bottom of the rungs of child care. I didn't know that before, but after months, I understood that now.

"I love you." I whispered to her and hugged her tight to my shoulder as I sat down on the bed in the corner of the large room. I laid my body back and down along the bed with her next to me, helping me drag the cables over so they weren't tugging so much on my chest.

She was asleep on me in minutes, drooling slightly out of the corner of her mouth.

I couldn't sleep, but I could have watched her for days.

I had to get us out of here.


	16. Chapter 16

AN – There's no reason to keep this going deep into weeks and weeks, really. The captivity, that is. That and I'll lose my mind trying to write Pepper alone and worried for that long. There's only so much I can write on her part before I think I'm boring everyone, including myself.

A deep appreciation and love to all of my readers who have continued through this with me. This started off as something meant to be cute and maturing for Tony – and it still is, but with another element of fear. I fully intend to finish this story after the captivity, but I really really want to give an epilogue of sorts deep on into the future, into Emily's teenage years. Kind of like what I gave at the beginning of chapter 3. I'm very interested in giving that image of what I think this little girl will be like personality wise after all of the things in her life. But that's for a later time.

And I shoutout to saichick, because she's the writing mentor that I always needed – someone who encouraged instead of discouraged, unlike my real mother.

Chapter 16

Insomnia  
or, A Way Out

"Miss Potts?"

"Y-yes, Jarvis?" I hadn't expected him to call from above like that. The house had been quiet for a few hours while I read. Anything, just anything to get my mind off of what wasn't here. I missed the giggling. And the stupid come-ons Tony always shot at me even though he didn't have to anymore. The yelling at Dora was something I greatly missed, and the never-ending parade of Barbies. It had gotten to the point that I wasn't sleeping. I laid in bed for hours on end, reading, watching TV, something to occupy my mind when all it could think about were the two dark-headed 'children' of the household.

"You asked about the possible tracking of the Mark II reactor. I believe I do have a way to do so. Shall I run the signal trace?"

I almost jumped out of my seat. A possibility. Something shining light of hope. The idea that I could find Tony by the thing stuck in his chest made my heart leap, and the memories of the times before seemed closer all of a sudden.

"Yes, please, as quickly as possible! And constantly!"

"Yes ma'am." Then all was quiet again. But it wasn't for me. I couldn't contain my excitement. The possibility of a signal – I didn't know what it could be, but it was better than absolutely nothing. I had to force myself to keep going in my book. It could be hours before Jarvis said anything again. I couldn't stare at the ceiling like I was waiting for my sign from God. Something else had to occupy my time – or at least I had to try.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

They took Emily not long after they brought her.

She was asleep and comfortable on my chest while I stroked her back and tried to comfort her as best I could in her sleep. She looked exhausted. She probably wasn't sleeping well.

I found out firsthand how much she wasn't sleeping.

Long after the night had set in according to my frosted windows and the darkening of my room, the door to the rest of the world opened. I could hear sniffling and before I was awake enough to understand it, someone was crawling into my bed with me. A small someone that attached to my open skin like it was the breath of life.

She was shaking, but not crying anymore. Her body was so tired. That's why she had fallen asleep on me before. She was extremely unsettled in this place to the point that she wasn't sleeping. Now that the guards had seen her sleep with me, she was allowed to come back so she wouldn't drive them insane through the night. This not only comforted me, but definitely comforted her because she was asleep on the lower corner of my pillow in seconds.

The cables in my chest were highly annoying in this situation. Normally, when hooked up to my reactor, I could snuggle her in close with no problem, and she would appreciate the night light.

Now, I couldn't hold her fully because my cables had to be placed correctly not to bother her. Even where she lay was awkward, because I had to lay my cables over the side of her head. She didn't seem to mind, but she might in the morning.

I was able to sleep better when I was touching her. It seemed so much more like home than this bumpy medical mattress in a sterile laboratory with her soft breaths ever few seconds. I still missed the low hum of my reactor for several reasons, but I managed.

When the same guards took her from me again in the morning, I was too groggy and physically drained to fight. She was too asleep to do much of anything but be picked up and carried off into the light until I was left in the utter dark, and completely alone.

At least in Afghanistan I had had a friend. Here, I had no one for long periods of time.

Not long after, the same guards were here for me. They pulled me out of bed and told me to put these scrubs on that they shoved into my hands. They didn't leave. After a few minutes of staring at them half asleep, I realized they expected me to put them on in front of them. No underwear. Just change clothes from the scrub pants I had on then to the ones I was being given.

After changing, they bound my hands again and out the door we went back into the hallway. At least, that's what I thought. I was blindfolded and being let by the tug of cables in my chest. One of the guards was leading me by pulling the battery. That was a constant state of fear that was unnecessary. I would have come without the anxious feeling of possible pain. I guess it was a rope on a feisty piece of livestock in a way. Is that really all I was here – the goose they were waiting on to lay the golden egg with enough cajoling?

We went through another doorway and into blinding light – the smell had changed, and the blindfold was taken off to show something of a backyard for the building but with a 15 foot fence where there were suits lined up in rows – different models, it looked like, with different builds and different weapons. All had the trademark holes in their chests, and there stood my favorite friend in this whole place. Another little squirrely bald man was holding a black box next to him.

I wished I could see outside more. I wanted to know where we were. All I could see was the green tops of trees that looked far away. We could be anywhere from what I knew of tree types.

"Ah, Mr. Stark, glad you could join us. We were just going to do a little test to make sure we have the right components for our suits to be powered efficiently by your reactor. I believe we have the correct plug-in specifications…"

Why did I have to be here to witness this? Really? Maybe he had this need to show off his suits or something?

The smaller man opened the box, and the leader pulled out my reactor, connections and all, and plugged it into the suit that looked most like the one that Obadiah had used against me before. It turned perfectly into place. I expected it to – it was made based on the original design I did in Afghanistan. Obadiah took the reactor before and made his suit work. Why wouldn't it work now?

The thing kicked on, whirring and buzzing and moving shortly thereafter. There must have been someone already in it.

The man – who I realized I didn't have a name for – looked like he could shit his pants in happiness. But this also meant a whole lot more was on me getting out of here faster.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Miss Potts, I have a signal."

That was the best phone call I had picked up all day. It was odd to pick up a call from 'Tony' when it was really Jarvis on the other side. But I knew what it would be about.

"Where is it? Is it close?"

"No, Miss Potts – It's in central America. The reactor has been activated for use within a suit, but it is not the Mark VI."

…But that didn't make sense. If it wasn't the Iron Man suit…

"Have you contacted SHIELD?"

"Yes ma'am. Director Fury is looking as we speak."

"Thank you, Jarvis." I hung up and set my phone back down on my desk. I just stared at it for the longest time. A signal meant we had an idea of where he could have been taken. But was it possible that they were both dead? That someone had taken them both to end the Stark line and just wanted the reactor for their own purposes?

To end my train of thought, Natalie walked in to ask me something about a memo I wanted to have sent out. She probably already knew the news as well. It wouldn't've surprised me if Fury told her to keep me occupied.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Honduras? Not a bad place to go to not be noticed." There were few prospects as to who would take Stark and his kid at the same time. We knew they wanted something only he could give, but the kid as collateral? That meant it was something big. Something he wouldn't give willingly. And from what we could tell, it had worked.

"Coulsen. I think I'm craving some Hispanic food."

"I'll assemble a team, sir."

"You've got 5 hours."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"What do you have to say, Mr. Stark?"

"Have you done anything about the icing problem?"

"Excuse me?"

I couldn't help but laugh. Without my reactor they hadn't been able to flight test, so they hadn't gotten my joke. The smaller, bald squirrel holding the box stared at me, probably trying to think of what I had passed a joke about.

"Nothing. So, what was this all about?"

"I wanted you to see what changes we had made to your original Mark I. We have different forms, similar to what your most recent challenger did with Hammer's resources and blind eyes…" He waved his hand across the stockpile of metal that looked like a jumble of different pieces put together to make different things. Like legos making different ships with all the same parts. All I could do was point out possible flaws in creation, hindrances in fighting, movement and flight. But I wasn't about to say anything.

"So, answer my question – what do you think?"

"I think…that you need a lot of reactors." I said quietly, still looking them over. One even had exposed wiring. It was probably incomplete but he wanted to try to show off, I guessed. Why not gloat in front of a captive audience?

"You are correct. And more and more are being built. This is why I needed your expertise. I need this piece of equipment to make it all work. And I thank you for generously giving your support to the endeavor." His words seeped darkness and greed. He had a dark grin on his face as he unhooked the reactor from the suit and put it back into the box to be taken inside.

It was then that I realized that there was no one in the suit he had just plugged in. Were these all drones like what Vanko had created? Or were they manned?

"Are these suits for men to run, or-?"

"Some are droids, but the ones in blue to the right are for men to be able to pilot. This was our first test one-" He patted the one that had been moving moments ago on the shoulder, which was higher than his head "so if the first one works, then the others should as well, correct?"

I nodded my head quietly and looked down at the ground, trying to think of ways I could make reactors that worked but not completely. That would look functional, but had some sort of glitch that would take hours of work to fix, especially for the non-knowledgeable scientist.

"Oh…Mr. Stark, I do have something to ask you." He came close again, his hands behind his back, as the other scientists filed into the building. He came up a little uncomfortably close to me. My mind told me to headbutt him and run, but that wouldn't get me anywhere.

"Emily…doesn't sleep well alone, does she."

"No, she slept with Pepper and I in Malibu." So maybe this was my way to get to be kept with me.

"Hm. Then she'll sleep with you. No reason to keep such a cute little girl from her sleep." He had already started to walk away-

"No, wait…could she stay with me? During the day, I mean. In that room. It's big enough for us both."

He stopped and turned his head enough to look at me with one eye.

"If you teach my men to create a working prototype of your implant, we will talk more." He turned again, and walked back into the building. The same treatment I had received before, I got again. A blindfold, painful chest tugging, then being thrown back into the large workroom completely alone and worried not for my safety, but for the wellbeing of someone who never should have had to deal with something like this if I hadn't drunkenly slept with a Russian model.


	17. Chapter 17

AN: Yes, I've been gone for a very long time. It hasn't been completely my fault, but the majority has. I broke up with my long-standing boyfriend (and found another that not only is okay with my RDJ obsession, but participates in it), graduated college, and played in a national championship since I last found myself here. But I find that I really feel like I should finish this. This is the only one that I really took my time and tried to get done. So now that I have the time, I think I'm going to try to get this done. It may be quicker than some of you would prefer, but I'm going to do it. I'm actually going to finish something.  
What a concept!

Chapter 17  
A Father's Pain

"Excuse me?"

"I want to go."

"Hell no. You are not going. Especially into something that we aren't sure what they have or what they want."

"I just…"

"I get it, you miss your narcissistic boyfriend and his lovechild with some model, but that doesn't mean that I allow you to tag along on something that would probably get you killed."

I knew I wouldn't be of any use to them, I just wanted to be there – they were going to get him, or at least so they believed. I wanted to be there to see both of them alive and well. I knew it would be better for me to be sitting at home waiting than to be in the way, but I just wanted so badly to hold them both as soon as they were somewhere safe and sound.

"You'll have your loverboy in a few hours, Miss Potts. Don't worry that pretty head of yours."

As I watched Fury walk away with Natasha, in an overly tight black bodysuit, I knew everything would be alright. But I just didn't want to have to wait. What if they were injured, or worse – if one of them was…

That wouldn't have happened. It hasn't been too long. Tony wouldn't jeopardize her or him near her. He couldn't do that.

I didn't want to just sit and twiddle my thumbs, but what other choice did I have in the moment?

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

When night came, they walked her into the room and shut the door behind her quietly. I was sitting at a table working as I had been, looking at the fried circuitry within the suit. I had realized a few hours before that the 'rock' I had been hit with wasn't a rock at all.

"_Nasty little things. Small, but powerful. Thought the government would be interested in using them. They're small enough to carry and they aren't particularly noticeable to the enemy. And they said that you couldn't make an electro-magnetic pulse that was this small."_

I had remembered to ask when he came in earlier to talk about reactors. For some reason, my reactor wasn't particularly bothered by it, but my suit was wrecked. He wanted to discuss that as well. But that was beyond now. Emily was here.

I set my tools down and moved to kneel on the floor so we were face to face similar heights. She wandered over, arms out, happy to see me in more of a normal circumstance. But she was weirded out by my cables still. She poked at them, pulled on the bundle, and looked down in the metal cavern in my chest.

"Where blue light daddy?"

"They have it, but it's alright. Just needs fixing. I have a new battery, but it's not as pretty." I pointed up to the car battery on the table above me, just starting to pull down a little from my kneeling on the floor.

"Oh. When it come back?"

"I don't know, baby. Soon. Are you ready for bed?" I moved the hair away from her face and smiled half-assed. I could bring her some semblance of normalcy this way. I needed a brush for her matted hair. She needed her hair washed and a good shower to boot. I hadn't had one either.

She nodded and I reached around her to pick her up with one arm. For some reason, with only car battery power, it was harder to pick her up. I knew she wasn't that heavy – she was still decently small. I shouldn't have any trouble carrying her. It was a weird feeling for her to be something of a heft on my body.

I picked up the car battery with my other arm and walked to the other side of the room where the bed lay next to a now set up lamp and nightstand. Small requests were easy to get now that I had completely cooperated and was going along with their plan.

I sat down the battery first next to the lamp, then slowly, steadily, and exactingly laid down with her still laid against my shoulder and the cables over her body. I moved them around so they didn't bother her laying, and instead went through the open space between our faces over my shoulder. As much as I wanted to keep looking at the suit and trying to figure a way to get us out of here, she needed me more. She needed me first. And that's something that I had only learned in the last few months. Iron Man was needed across the world for a number of people, but only Tony Stark was needed at all times by one small person. And one large one too, but she was probably freaking out in his mansion at the moment because both of us were gone.

I laid there staring at the ceiling after kissing her forehead and telling her I loved her. Her breathing slowed down, so I reached over to turn off the lamp, leaving the room bathed in small light from one of the work benches. I could still see some above me, but not much. Enough for me to think and not be bothered by my eyesight.

I could make a glitching reactor. It would work perfectly when not in complete use, then fry when the suits started using a large amount of energy. That would be possible. Make it powerful enough to run small things, but not strong enough to make the whole suit work. That would be simple, and they wouldn't know much of a difference. I could start on that tomorrow. And maybe get a shower for Em and myself. As much as I loved the girl, smelling her hair so close to my face told me how much she needed to bathe.

At some point in time, while thinking about the equations to make everything work as I planned in the reactors, I fell asleep in my exhaustion. I felt so much more at peace with a small girl sleeping on my naked chest. Even if her fingers weren't touching a certain light in my chest.

I was jolted awake sometime in the early morning. It was still dark, but not that dark. I heard something – an explosion. Emily heard it too. She was hiding in my neck quickly after and mumbling tiredly. Instinctively, I sat up and held her tight to me – it could have just been some scientists trying out something, and having a bad reaction, or it could be quite the opposite.

When the alarm started sounding, I knew exactly what it was.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18  
A Way Out

Their set-up wasn't bad. The building was built well and deep in the jungle I might add. There was a helipad, which meant that there wasn't much in the way of driving around here. The building had concrete and steel fortification, and a security system that was quite advanced, but little can be done about a well placed bomb on a roof.

The hole we blew was huge, and there wasn't a damn thing that could be done about it.

We knew the alarm system would go off immediately, so we were ready. We dropped men down inside, and from the radio signals we had the majority of the place taken within 8 minutes. My crews reported massive amounts of suits, all with trademark holes and some even differentiated. These people never learned. Or did no one pay attention to what had happened in Afghanistan? If my intelligence was correct, these men worked for Stane originally, otherwise they wouldn't have gotten plans for the images I had sent to me from helmet cameras. The suits looked very similar, but much smaller. They knew they needed the reactor, just like Stane had. How did they not expect to run into more trouble than just Stark's own personal brand of mouthing?

The compound was a pretty big building, so when it took some time for Natasha to tell me they had found Stark, I wasn't surprised. But what we couldn't find was anyone of any worth – anyone that wasn't little more than a piece of a security team that didn't know the difference between their own mother and the scientists that had paid them.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

That alarm going off was better than I thought. Instead of two grunt guards breaking down the metal door and scaring myself and my child half to death, it was men in Shield suits and one very tightly dressed Russian.

"Oh, Jesus Christ Natalie." I heaved a sigh of relief, and Emily was more than happy to go to her other caretaker and start jabbering in Russian while she sobbed. She was working on calming the child when she noticed my particular problem.

"Where is your reactor?"

"If I knew the answer to that, would I be hooked up to a car battery?"

Okay, currently would be the best time for me to be a jackass, but that had to be a stupid to her in retrospect.

I grabbed it up and stood just as another explosion went off near our room, making all of us duck down. They all started for the door, but I stayed. I had one last thing I had to do.

"Natalie, please tell me you have some sort of explosive." I yelled over the din of fire and gun shots.

She grabbed some small pieces off of her belt and threw them at me. They looked like tiny pieces of metal, but I knew she wouldn't be throwing me any scrap. She nodded and then ran out into the hall while still holding Emily who was yelling for me to follow. But I had to do this. There was no way the suit was going to be functional enough for me to use, and I had no reactor. There couldn't be any bit of it left for someone to find that may live on past this raid.

I tried to drag all the pieces together in one big clump in a corner of the room. It was already starting to get hot and smoky, even in my sequestered room on the other side of the building from most of the explosions and shots.

Long after they had run off and gone, I set the buttons on those little disks, grabbed my battery, and ran out the door. I was losing a suit and the neoprene under it, but those were replaceable. Emily and I were not.

I ran down a hallway, past where I had seen Emily that first time, through a set of steel double doors into a large warehouse type area that had been their lab, or at least so it looked. There were open doors where shield men were running towards choppers, and out I went into the dark night. It wasn't so dark with the fire behind me. I heard the noise before I felt the explosion in what had been my half of the building. The frosted glass I had used to see the time of the day shattered loudly and fire plumed out of it in dark stacks. When I turned to look, I heard a yell from a small voice. Emily was running towards me, sobbing crying in all of the mess. She had managed to get away from Natalie again.

I didn't realize what was going on as I ran to her. It was so noisy that when she fell, I didn't think anything of it. I thought she had tripped. It wasn't until I got to her and I saw blood that I knew she hadn't just fallen. Then came the shot that caught my shoulder, but only grazed it. What it had done was catch one of the wires attached to my port. The searing pain I felt in my chest I had felt more than once – but it was ten times worse. My child was sobbing at my feet and screaming in pain while I was having an outright heart attack.

I didn't hear Fury call for the men to fire into the bushes. I didn't hear the men screaming when they were shot and killed hidden in the foliage. I could only feel the utter pain I felt, and try to hold Emily's wound with my hand. It was deep in her thigh. She was bleeding all over the clothes she had gone to school in. Natasha appeared out of nowhere and tried to pull her away, but she was clinging so tightly to my pants and screaming. She didn't want to let me go. I didn't want to let her go. Medics came to her and they finally pried her away and took her off to another chopper. I was the last man to be loaded onto the back one. The last thing I remember was Natalie trying to reconnect the severed wire. Then finally all the loud noise went away for a little while.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

At some point in time, I fell asleep. I don't remember falling asleep, but I did. Sitting on the couch in my pajamas, watching movies and trying to convince myself that everything would be alright, I fell asleep.

Jarvis' voice jarred me awake and hard.

"Miss Potts, Director Fury is calling. He has stated that Mister Stark and the little miss are at the hospital on LAAF."

I was up and awake faster than I realized. I didn't notice how quickly I had gotten up and put on shoes until I was walking into the emergency room on base.

Natalie was standing there, bloodied but not at all bothered looking. She seemed the same as usual, except for her change in wardrobe.

"Natalie, what-"

"Come with me, shh." She grabbed my arm quickly and pulled me back through doors that said do not enter. I could hear the screaming crying there.

Beyond a wall of glass was little Emily, screaming crying with blood coming out of her leg. The doctors were trying to touch it, but she wouldn't let them. I was in that room instantly, kneeling down and kissing her, coddling her, trying to calm her down. She was still yelling, but she calmed down some seeing me. I had to wipe her nose and cooed to her to get the doctors anywhere close to feeling on her leg.

"And you are, miss?"

"I'm her adoptive mother. What's wrong?"

"She has a broken femur from a gunshot wound. The bullet has been removed and the bandage secured, but she may need surgery for the bone to heal properly. I need you to sign consent forms for x-rays, blood tests, and narcotics to make her more comfortable."

"Absolutely. Whatever is necessary."

I got through the paperwork (and the needles, which she didn't at all like) and soon enough she was sleeping decently. It was too early in the morning for her to be screaming so. She would have surgery in the morning, they said. They needed to insert a rod in her leg for her bone to heal correctly.

I had forgotten in all of the hullabaloo about the man that attached myself and that small girl.

"Where's Tony? Natalie, where's Tony?"

"Heavily sedated and in a bed. He needed to be hydrated, and his cables were severed momentarily. We had to reconnect him and taking care of him would not have happened if he was awake and knew of Emily's situation."

"I can understand that completely. He would have killed himself to make sure she was alright. Can I at least see him? Please."

"Yes, but he'll be asleep. We don't plan on waking him until the morning when Emily is in surgery."

I nodded, and she quietly led me to another part of the hospital. It said cardiac patients, and that only made me chuckle a little bit inside. They had to reconnect his heart after all.

He was laying there on the bed, looking pale and beaten as he slept. There was just enough room in the darkness and on the other side of the battery cables for me to crawl in next to him and find my comfortable spot on his chest. After all that had happened to me that day, and the problems with Emily, I needed rest. I needed to smell him, and for him and I to wake up together the next day. I would be the best person for him to hear about Emily from. And I just wanted to hear his voice first thing in the morning.


	19. Chapter 19ish

AN: So, it's been a while. It's been paining me that this was never finished. And it never will be finished like I want it to. But I need to give it better closure. I need them to be alright. And I'm sure all of you do too.  
I know Avengers is coming up shortly (SQUEE) – but also what you may not know is that I'm an adult with a career job, a desk, and bills. As much as I would like to go at it and write like a madman again, I probably won't have the time. So, you'll get weekend dabbles, like this one.

Chapter 19-ish  
Discomfort

I don't know if I'll ever stop having these dreams.

They're not dreams. They're nightmares. Nightmares of her sobbing face, the blood everywhere, how she wouldn't let me go – I'll never forget that. I know my psyche won't let me.

She'll be fine. She'll walk fine. It will take some time to do some therapy, but she'll be okay. The doctors are pretty reassuring, but I still worry. I guess it's my job as Dad to worry about his little girl.

She had to start home-schooling. We didn't want her to fall behind while she was healing, and I didn't want her going anywhere away from the house for a while.

I was terribly depressed for months. I didn't want her to leave the safe confines of the walls I had built to keep me safe from the rest of the world once. I knew that here no one could take her from me and cause something like that to happen to her again. She seemed fine. She still laughed, she still played and she did have some friends come over. The news reported her kidnapping, and also reported our return. Her class sent a big card welcoming her home. I knew she missed going to school and seeing friends every day. But I couldn't bear the thought of her disappearing again like that. I know Pepper couldn't bear us both gone again.

It got better. I went out with her. We did fun things together while Pepper was busy corralling the press and the company. Everything had to get settled. I had to get settled.

She didn't go back to school until the next school year. That's how long it took me to feel better about sending her away from me or Pepper. She had better guard detail as well.

As years went by, she got older and more comfortable. She became overly curious about everything. She asked a lot of questions. She was highly interested in whatever I was doing. She loved to come downstairs and watch me tinker around. She did a little herself too, but not with my expertise.

She excelled in school once she became completely comfortable in the language. We made sure to keep her Russian up too. That would benefit her in the long run.

Somewhere in there, I convinced Pepper to stay permanently. She got a nice shiny ring out of it too.

But no matter what, no matter how many years go by – I still can never get over that look on the little girl's face. It will never leave my nightmares.


	20. Chapter 20

AN: I appreciate knowing that people notice still when I update – but also I appreciate knowing that people are so interested in the rest. No, that wasn't the end. I said it was a drabble. A thought. Something to entice and return to you, the reader. I know I will never get to finish this story in the entirety I need to. I don't have it in me anymore to make the connection from the hospital to where my mind sits now. I just know where I wanted it to end up. And this is it.

Chapter 20  
Dreams do come true

My name is Emily Stark. I was born in a small town outside of Moscow. I lived the first 5 years of my life in a tiny apartment with little food. When I was 5 years old, my mother died and left me with my dying grandmother. She hated herself until she died for having to give me up to my biological father – a man with the last name of Stark. My grandmother hated him until her death because of how he ruined my mother's life. But was I really something so terrible? Is that how I was seen – a terrible burden? I don't remember much from then. I only remember the light that came into my life after I left Russia. I remember talking ceilings, monsters wearing heavy clothes and a shiny red man. I remember a strawberry-haired woman fighting with a dark-haired man, but they always smiled. I remember a dark-skinned man who I could always convince to buy me a new toy. I remember a big, strong man that took me home from school that would take me to get ice cream. I remember a woman who understood me when I cried and how curly her red hair was.

I remember when I first saw the light that I was always fascinated with.

"What was your prompt for this?"

"We were asked to write an essay about how our past has affected our lives and how it will affect our future."

"And what are you going to be centering on?"

"I haven't really decided yet…"

"You need to. I like it, but you need to narrow it down I think. Talk about your life in general, but then get more to the point about what you want to talk about." She who I have called Mom since I came here handed back the notebook paper with my first draft written on it and smiled at me. She was working in her office in the house for once, and I had a day off from school for some teacher thing.

I started to walk off, but I stopped before I got outside of the doors.

"Hey, Mom, when's Dad coming home?"

"You know your father. He's off doing something or another with his friends."

"Can I call him?"

"Sure. If you get lucky enough, he'll actually hear it."

I left her to her work and went back up to my room. It changed a bit since I came here originally. It wasn't lavender or covered in girlish flowers anymore. I had it panted back to a basic color of light tan and had decorated with pictures of friends, posters of cute boys and pictures of fashion designs I liked. For my fifteenth birthday, I had gotten a sewing machine that was on my dad-made desk in the corner by the large windows. I must have had some of my mom in me, Dad always said. He knew nothing about fashion, though design was something he understood better.

Mom was always helpful. She always wore latest designs for work and took me shopping. We're supposed to go to fashion week this coming year! I know she's not my real mom. She didn't give birth to me. As far as I have known for a long time, though, she's Mom. That's just her name.

I try to keep true to my real Mom and the family I once had a long time ago. I do still read and watch Russian things. I try to keep up in my language. Mom now has always pushed me to continue that. She says it might help me in the future someday. Being bilingual helps a lot of people.

I had my own phone, TV, computer – my room was a teenager's dream. But I rarely spent time there. If Dad was home, I was downstairs with him. Not really doing anything – usually homework or watching TV, but I just liked being down there. Fashion was my love, but I also liked helping Dad do things with the suit. Occasionally, we worked on this old car he said he and his dad worked on. He told me old stories and I learned about how the suit worked and how engines make cars run.

But the main reason I ever spent time down there was to be with him.

He was gone a lot. Saving the world meant travelling pretty regularly. I was always happy when he was home. I know normal teenage girls want nothing to do with their parents, but when your parent is Iron Man it's a little different.

I couldn't keep the boys off of me. They always were asking to come over, or wanting to hang out. Some of them I didn't even know their names. I knew why – they wanted to meet my Dad. I didn't see them as anything but annoying idiots. I have one guy friend that I've known for years, and he's the only guy that I'll be taking back to meet my father, thank you.

No, we're not together. We're just friends. Dad keeps reminding him that he knows where he lives and has no problem working as an amateur surgeon. I keep reminding him that's not necessary.

"Jarvis, will you call Dad for me please?"

"Certain, Miss Emily."

It's still cool that the ceiling works as my own butler.

"Do you need homework help again? Or do you want a new purse, because I just bought a new one-"

I could hear explosions, yelling, things hitting metal – definitely in a fight. But he still picked up for some reason. Though, he has helped me do algebra homework before over the phone during a fight he was in.

"Dad, no! I just want to know when you're coming home. Where are you?"

"Oh, no where special. Dealing with a small alien infest-TAtion, nothing huge. I'll be home to tuck you in and read you a bedtime story. Goodnight, Moon?"

"Kay. And you better be here!"

"Yeah, I'll work on it."

"Love you."

"Love you TOO. Come here you f-"

I could tell when the phone hung up. And I think Jarvis did that on purpose as well.

I went downstairs with my drawing book, my phone and my homework and waited in the basement. Besides, Dad kept a drafting table down there I could use to design.

Mom dragged me out of there after 11. I did have school the next day. I fought, because I had no interest in going to bed until I knew if Dad had kept his promise. I was old enough to stay up anyway.

I did what I was told and went to my room – but I didn't go to sleep. I kept on looking through designer websites at new lines and what colors were in. I'm sure Jarvis told Mom I was still awake.

I fell asleep on my table at some point. I got woken up at some time in the early morning by my father shaking my shoulder and shooing me over to my bed.

After shedding my jeans, I crawled under the blanket and he pulled it up to my shoulders.

"Still want that bedtime story?"

I grumbled, though I barely remember it.

He was walking out of the room when I reached up and made him stop.

"Dad…"

"What, Emily." He looked tired in the dim light. Beaten, sweaty, bruised in a few places. That's how I most remembered him.

"Thanks. For coming home."

He smiled and shut the door behind him. I went right back to sleep.


End file.
